Gardeners World 2020 S53E27

Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. It's always a sad moment when the sweet peas are done, but I think they are truly done now. Once the days start to get shorter, their seed production really increases. Now, of course, if they produce seed, they're not producing flower. You can see the seed pods are here, forming just like normal peas. This is a variety called Black Diamond. You can see on the few flowers there are, very short stems by this time of year, which makes them very hard to use as a cut flower. So it's time to clear them and use the space for something else. One final thing is if you want to keep the seeds, and it's a perfectly good idea, don't take them down yet. Let them all go to seed and let them dry out completely. And then before the seed pods open, you collect them up and then keep the seeds and keep them dry and you can use those. Or you can sow them straight away in October, because it won't be long before the first batch of sweet peas for next year's flowering has to be sown. On today's programme, Toby Buckland celebrates a garden that has been brought back to life in a spectacular fashion. Rarely does a garden of true scale and ambition come blazing into our consciousness. Well, that's exactly what's happened here in this quiet corner of rural Somerset. And Frances Tophill meets an allotmenteer who has defied all her doubters to grow fruit and veg from across the world. This one is a turmeric. Yes. That is just one year. Yes. And although my sweet peas may be over, I shall be planting and planning for winter and spring colour and fragrance. Now, it may not look like it now, but this is our wildflower meadow. And like all wildflower meadows, it has to go through certain phases in order to get the best of the flowers. And this is very much the late summer autumnal phase. So what you need to do is cut the flowers and the grasses any time from mid to late July, right through to September. But when you cut it, you have to take it all away. It's really important you do that. And then mow it as short as you possibly can so you can see bare soil. And the reason for doing that is that the seeds from the wildflowers need to touch bare soil to germinate. And this is the perfect moment to sow wildflower seed and also to plant spring bulbs, which will come through before the grass gets too long next year. Now, what I've got are three different types of bulbs to add today. The first is an Allium. This is Allium nigrum, black garlic. And I think it's the best Allium to put into grass of any kind. It's not particularly tall. It's about two foot tall. It's got a medium-sized onion head of white flowers. And it flowers quite late, May, June. But Alliums like all the sunshine they can get and quite good drainage. Now, the drainage I can't do much about underneath the grass, but I can give it sunshine. So this needs to go in this open area in the middle and not out towards the edges under the trees. Now, this is a Camassia. Camassia semiplenum. And this one flowers longer than most. It's sterile, so it doesn't seed. And you get these lovely white flowers running up the stem. In grass, they're fantastic. And they will really be happy however wet it gets, because these are a plant that actually prefers heavy, wet soil. Finally, I've got Summer Snowflake, Leucogen, Ice Thieven. Summer is a bit of a misnomer, because it flowers in April and to May. Looks like a giant snowdrop and will be quite happy in light shade. The point is, I've chosen these to suit this place. If you're building your wildflower meadow, think about the soil, think about the position, think about the effect you want, and then choose bulbs to go with it. Now, it doesn't matter what bulbs you plant. The technique is always the same in grass. So, let's start with the Alliums, the ones that like most sunshine. And you just get a handful and throw them on the ground and plant them where they land. That looks much more natural than if you try and place them. The other thing is, if you're going to do any quantity of bulb planting into grass, get yourself a bulb planter. You can use a trowel, but it can be quite a strain on your wrist, and this is a treat. So, you simply stick it in the ground as deep as it will go, take it out with a plug of soil, take the bulb next to it, make sure that it's the right way up so the root's at the bottom, pop it in the hole, then make a hole for the next one and you'll find that the core pops up. There you are. That's the plug that will go on top of the first bulb. Pop it in there like that, job done. Now, while I'm planting the rest of these bulbs, it's time to join Frances as she visits an allotment, and this one is in North London. It belongs to Wrecker Mystery. Wrecker grows all kinds of vegetables, including many that we would recognise and probably grow ourselves, but there are also some others which are extremely unusual. I always love discovering new varieties of fruit and veg to add to the list of things to grow next year, but on this allotment site is a woman for whom the words, oh, but you can't grow that in Britain, are taken as a downright challenge. Wrecker Mystery grew up in Zambia with parents from Gujarat in western India, so when she got her first ever allotment eight years ago, she embarked on a tentative mission to see what could and would flourish in London soil. So what do you grow here? I grow the usual vegetable, but I also like to try something that you remember from your childhood, and that's something that I started with one thing, which was the chillies, and then I went to coriander, because you'd only find it in the shops and I never knew that you could grow it yourself, and the journey just went from one vegetable to another. Now, just a few years on, amongst the usual brassicas and lettuce is a cacophony of greens and beans and more, that many told her were impossible to grow. So when people say that you can't do something, that galvanises you to try it? Yes, I like a challenge, and I'll say no, it will grow, because you'll try and make it grow. If it doesn't grow outside, it'll grow in the greenhouse or a polytunnel, but I'm sure it will grow, because we do have a slot of six weeks of nice, good British summer, which is supposed to be warm, so never say never. So tucked in one greenhouse, amongst the onions and garlic, are some very exotic looking leaves. Hello! I love your greenhouse. It's good, isn't it? It's beautiful, and look what you're growing. So, gingers and things, what's this? That one you're looking at is turmeric. Yes, that's your regular, regular turmeric. But you've grown from a tuber? Yes, that's right. How many years ago did you do that? It's just one year. No, really? That is just one year. I only started it, uh, probably March. No! Yes, so you just buy the tubers in the shop, in the supermarket, stick them in a pot, that's it, and let them grow. That's it. Isn't it satisfying? It's very satisfying, knowing that you can grow them, and it becomes a houseplant at the same time. So how will you harvest these? Well, I'll be harvesting the turmeric. I can take just a small piece out. Because it's an evergreen, it'll keep going. It doesn't mind being uprooted a little bit, and I can put it back again. And the rest will be dried and sliced, and hopefully I can have some powder. Her other greenhouse is now packed with all sorts of chilies, including this Kashmiri chili, which gives the pink colour to tandoori powder, and the rare Aleppo pepper from Syria, which Reka is growing to save the seed for future generations. Because not only does she love to cook with what she grows, she's passionate about saving and using heritage varieties of veg and herbs, some of which look unfamiliar. So what have we got here? I've not seen this before. This is called fenugreek. Oh, I know fenugreek, but just as a dried herb. Dried herb, dried seeds is probably what you've seen, but it's sold a lot in Asian shops. But it's this one that you'll see and not the other variety. So this is a fenugreek as well? Yeah. It's called Kasuri Methi, a really old variety, and most of us use the dried version in our cooking. But Reka was keen to grow and taste the fresh leaves. You can make flatbreads with it, you can make a curry with it, you can add it into a curry, you can add it into a soup, you can do so many things. Seeds, you can crush them and make a pickle with them. So there is a load of things that can be made with just one item. Would I be able to try some of these? Oh, yes, please. Take the very tender leaves from the top. OK. I recognise that flavour. OK. Earthy, nutty. Yeah. That's lovely. Try the other one, same again. OK, so the tender leaves on this one as well. That is one that people will never have seen in growth because it doesn't travel well and it's fallen out of fashion to... Oh, that's much more peppery. Yes. Stronger flavour. It's a stronger flavour. There's a lot more, of course. This is orach. It's an early variety of spinach. And these are navy beans used to make baked beans. But I couldn't leave without tasting more of Wrecker's allotment creations, just as the rain started to fall. Right, let's try this. OK. Go on, you try first. So flatbread. You're the guinea pig here. I sense you've tried this on other people before me. Of course I have. And this is chilli jam? That's chilli jam that you're trying. That's delicious. Oh, it's quite hot. I was waiting for that one. That was quite a big splodge of chilli jam I had there. And then marmalade. Try the marmalade. Now have a different version of that flatbread. Which you made. Yes. It brings out something in marmalade that I've never noticed before. Yeah, because there's four flavours within the flatbreads. You've got the salt, you've got the sweet, you've got the bitter, and you've got the spice. And that four is helping you build up the main flavour, which is on top of the flatbread, which is the Seville marmalade. And the sugar really helped to ease the chilli hit. And then this, which is the salsa. Salsa? Yeah, salsa. All these ingredients, bar the line, are from the allotment. But this plot has brought Rekha much more than just flavour. The allotment is a passion that's obviously grown and grown the longer you've been here. But now you've actually turned gardening into your career as well. I have. I think it's been something I've always thought of doing. So I decided to study. And from studying, I decided to go and volunteer in a garden. And that's when I knew I think I'd like to be a gardener in my own professional right. And I've done that. So I think I've come full circle in my own thoughts. If you really wish to do something, you can do it. Just go for it. Don't let anyone stop you. And that's how I've done my allotment. And I'm loving it. Absolutely loving it. I think that does show how the humble allotment can rise to really special heights. Not only is it completely fascinating, but very beautiful too. But as well as growing unusual plants or plants that you've not tried before, it's worth also reassessing how you grow things. And I did this a few years ago with pumpkins and squashes. I've grown them for a long time with various degrees of success. But they do take a lot of space. And I now, and this is the second year I've done it, grow them up at these temporary framework constructions. And it's fantastic. It works really well. Having said that, at this time of year, if you're growing squashes or pumpkins of any kind, you do need to be utterly realistic, cut your losses and make the most of what you have. And what I mean by this is if you have a flower like this, there is not time for this to produce an edible or viable fruit. The important thing is to make sure that the fruits that you do have, that you know you want to keep, have the maximum opportunity to ripen. And that they do by getting sunshine. But also the more sunshine it gets now for the next three or even four weeks, if we're lucky, the harder the rind will be. And the harder the rind is, the longer it stores. You do need to cut off any foliage that is masking the fruit from the light. So on this side of the trellis, I need to more or less take all the leaves off. And if I do that, it just means that light and air can get through. And while I'm doing it, I'm taking any of the flowers off as well. And you can see I've got a really nice squash growing. That is a Blue Hubbard. And that is a good size. You've got a little fruit forming there. I don't think it's worth keeping that. It seems harsh, but time to go. Growing my squashes vertically has saved me a lot of space. But even so, it is something that some people don't have room for. And we've had a film from Lewis McNeill, who shows how he's managing to grow a wide range of vegetables on his houseboat. Hi, it's Lewis here. You can see we've got a lot of things growing at the moment. We've got some chilies and aubergine, because this part of the boat is the hottest. It's a real microclimate here. So actually, the aubergines are really going to enjoy that heat. So there's quite a lot going on in this container, actually. We've got tomatoes down here. We've got cosmos in there. We're trying to attract as many pollinators as possible. And we've had a really good year for hoverflies. It's really kept the aphids down, because hoverfly larvae are one of the best aphid munchers about. We've also got a cucumber. This one, actually, is probably due to be cut right now. That's a good size for the outdoor cucumbers. You don't let them get too much bigger than that. Now onto the roof. And we've got this quite big size container here. So the bigger the container size, the better for root space, for preventing the soil from drying out so quickly, which is one of the biggest challenges on a boat. The heat coming off this roof right now is just quite intense. So we've got a variety of courgettes here that have been doing really well. And actually, we've got to keep harvesting those, because the more you harvest them, the more they flower. And you can see there's many more on their way. If we come across to this bed here on the other side, each of the containers has got a range of different plants in, quite densely packed, which is a bit of a gamble. We've got some Caballonero in there, one of the last beetroots. We've already harvested a load of beetroots. Coriander there from last year, actually, that just was self-seeded. And the Mediterranean herbs over here, like it really, really hot. So there we go. That's the roof part of the garden. You can see the pleasure that growing a veg just on the roof of his boat is giving Lewis. And what strikes me about that is if you've got a very limited space, you can grow a wide range of vegetables, but not much of anything. So the answer is to make everything a celebration and tie it in some kind of event. That way, every time you harvest something, it becomes a special occasion. But to do that, of course, you do have to plan ahead and make sure that the right crops are growing at the right time. And that particularly applies to brassicas. We're coming into the brassica season in a big way. Brassicas, of course, include all cabbages, Brussels sprouts, broccoli. And I'm just about to harvest my first cabbage. This is a Savoy cabbage that has been quietly growing. It was planted out in May. And the first one is good and ready. So if I get in there, there we go. Look at that. Now, although it's just the central round head, this bit here, which is really firm, really packed with leaf that is going to go into the pot, the whole plant is magnificent. There is something really grand and almost heroic about a good cabbage. So that can go in there. And that to me is a sign of winter. I think of Savoy cabbages, which are really tough as winter's harvest. On this side, we've got purple sprouting broccoli, which is one of my favourite brassicas of all. But these, although they're growing well, won't be ready to harvest till February at the earliest and probably more like March. So they are a spring harvest, not a winter one. But on this side, we've got some kale. This is Cavolo Nero, black Tuscan kale, one of my favourite brassicas. And if you were only to grow one, this is the type of cabbage I would grow. And when you harvest kale, particularly Cavolo Nero, you don't cut it like you do a cabbage. You simply pull off the leaves as you need them. And I like to just take some leaves from each plant. And if you start lower down, it'll get taller and taller and grow a top knot of new leaves or keep growing new leaves well into spring. And the beauty of Cavolo Nero is not just the taste, which is rich and delicious, I think, but also it is the one type of brassica that you can't spoil by overcooking. In fact, it gets better. Now, we've got another chance to join Mark Lane as he visits a garden just outside Oxford that has taken its planting inspiration from the vast, wide open spaces of North America. With autumn just around the corner, you might think that your garden has passed its peak. But there is one garden style that offers masses of late summer colour, texture and character. And that is the prairie garden. Prairies are synonymous with the great plains and grasslands of North America. And the key to this type of garden is to embrace the wild spirit of that natural environment. Today, I've come to Aston Pottery Gardens in Oxfordshire, where their prairie-inspired borders are in full flourish. Stephen Bourne is the owner and head gardener, and his family has farmed here for 10 generations. So, Stephen, how did all of this begin? It started about 35 years ago with my wife, Jane, and myself. And it's just grown and grown and grown. There's all these wonderful ornamental grasses throughout the garden, and a real prairie theme going on. Why is it that you like that style? Well, I think probably the informality of it all, really. We've sort of taken the prairie style of planting another step further in that, whereas people generally plant in swathes of colour and waves of colour, we've actually started to develop it here so that when you actually look at it, it's a whole series of individual plants, as much as you'd get on a North American prairie. You look like they're all dotted around, almost uniformly distributed amongst the whole thing. Well, it is absolutely stunning. I just want to go and see more of it. For me, the prairie style is one of my absolute favourites. So, how do you transform your own outdoor space into a slice of the North American wilderness? You don't need masses of space, but most prairie plants do need plenty of sunshine. A few do well in shade, but ideally you need a sunny location for optimum flowers. With plants at the heart of this style, you won't need to think too much about hard landscaping, but a feature pathway can add a striking and practical element, allowing you to enjoy your borders from every angle. Ornamental grasses are the bedrock of this style. Go bold, go tall and go big. By planting them en masse, you create impact and wonderful movement. Lower down, you're looking for drifts of colour, evoking the naturalistic planting of meadows. Not every plant is a candidate for the prairie garden. Some are too aggressive, while others just aren't showy enough to make the cut. So, here's my guide to the VIPs, the very important plants you'll need to get going. Take this wonderful Miscanthus sinensis, with its firework-like plumes. It's just beautiful when the sun catches it and the wind just gently moves it. Also for height, we've got the wonderful Solidago. It's not an ornamental grass, it's a herbaceous perennial, but it gives you that same feeling. It's bright yellow and zesty, perfect for the back of the border. For a modern twist on the prairie style, why not plant a tapestry of annuals? Here, there are thousands to choose from, but Amaranthus, with its fiery spikes, amidst this colourful border, the effect is kaleidoscopic. The prairie style isn't for the faint-hearted. It's big, bold, and may require a few gardening hours, but if you're willing to channel your inner pioneer spirit, this can be a garden of pure escapism, a place to transport you to the flowering grasslands of the Wild West. The irony is that these flowing grasslands of the Wild West have all but disappeared, but they have inspired an awful lot of prairie gardens, and they're extremely fashionable, and they are based upon this idea of big, open spaces. However, you can get that effect without necessarily using grasses and coneflowers. For example, here in the jaw garden, you have the foliage of the Chrycosmia, the Iris sibirica, which finished flowering in June, but those leaves still work really well as a backdrop for subsequent flowers. We've got Nephothia flowering well at the moment, but their foliage also works in that same way of giving these verticals and the rhythm that flows through the border, and you can use that in amongst all other kinds of planting. So what I would say is you may not be able to replicate those vast prairies in your own garden, but you can take the spirit of them and come up with something truly creative. Now, still to come on today's programme. We visit a garden that is dedicated to growing plants to make natural dyes in a range of exquisite colours. It's always a surprise, you never know what you're going to get, and it's just a privilege to work with nature's beautiful palette. But first, we join Toby Buckland, as he visits a centuries-old garden that has had a dramatic and ambitious revamp. Rarely does a garden of true scale and ambition come blazing into our consciousness, grab our attention and capture our horticultural imaginations. Well, that's exactly what's happened here in this quiet corner of rural Somerset. This is the Newt, an inspirational new garden set within 300 acres of park and woodland. It's built on the estate of a Georgian manor house and has been a garden here for over 300 years. After the romance of the English landscape movement came the modern pioneers, such as Penelope Hophouse and her 1970s arts and crafts inspired design, and Norrie and Sandra Pope's famous experiments with colour in the 1980s. But by 2013, the gardens had fallen into neglect. That's when a new owner decided it was time for this horticultural phoenix to rise from the ashes. Well, it's big, and it still has that fresh-out-of-the-box feel. It's divided into different rooms, and some of them like this are quite contemporary. But what strikes me as I explore is the way past and present meld together, and you can hardly see the join. This is a good example. A Victorian walled kitchen garden that's been extended out into the landscape with hedging, effectively turning it into a giant egg. This huge oval, striking in its simplicity, forms the heart of the Newt. And what's inside the egg? Apples. Lots of them. Basking in the reflected heat given off this brick wall. 460 trees and 267 varieties. Apples from all over England, pruned for maximum productivity, a clue that produce is a priority here. The person behind the Newt's creation is architect and designer Patrice Taravella. Patrice, what was your vision for the garden? You know, the project of this garden was to transform, to realise a unique garden, and to have a productive garden, and to share emotion with the public. At its heart, this garden is beautiful and useful. I am a food lover, and for me, a flower has only a signification if I can see the fruit we can eat. For me, the beauty is not an objective. The beauty is a result. If you understand the landscape, if you understand the spirit of the place, and if you work well, overall you have to work well, the garden becomes beautiful. For a garden with so many stories to tell, it's fitting that one lies behind the name itself. Apparently, during construction, work was frequently halted to protect a colony of thousands of Newts. And you can imagine the builders with their eyes rolling towards the skies every time that happened. Well, in their honour, the garden was given a new moniker. It went from Hadspan House, which it had been known as for hundreds of years, to the Newt. While I haven't seen any of these wonderful amphibians in the borders, I have spotted that one immortalised and busting out of the brickwork there as a sculpture. You get the sense there's a great playfulness at work here. Outside the giant egg, the planting is more varied. Formal beds featuring canna and salvia boldly planted en masse, nod to the Newt's Victorian heritage. In the Gertrude Jekyll-inspired cottage garden, there's a softer, looser style and wider colour palette. Then the colour gardens. Red, where the gold and silver tones of grasses and melianthus provide a shimmering backdrop for the fiery tones of Hellenium Rubensvirg. And salvia royal bumble. And blue, where asters provide a cool, late-summer burst of colour. But my favourite part, today at least, is this. The white garden. Now, the traditional way of showing off colour or experimenting with it is with a long border that you look along. But here, those same plants have been reconfigured into a garden, so you walk amongst the plants, it's completely immersive. And you'll know that if you work in the day and do most of your gardening in the evening, just how important it is to have white plants in your garden, because that's when their ethereal glow is at its very best. I like the design of this garden, though, for another reason. See these stone slabs? Well, just like the bricks in the kitchen garden, they hold the heat, and they encourage plants like this grass, penicetum villosum, to flower earlier and more abundantly. The man behind the white garden, and much of the planting here at the Newt, is Russell Riggler. So what were the gardens like when you first got here, Russ? Well, they weren't here. It was pretty much just a sea of mud. So what parts of the original gardens were here? The wall of the walled garden. There was the gardener's cottage, which was built from some of the original materials from the original house. These colour gardens that we've been walking past, are they an homage to the popes? They certainly are, and doing it in a slightly different way. So the popes had their colourist border inside the wall of the walled garden, whereas we've just focused on three, red, white and blue, and it's divided into three garden rooms. So you're playing around with mood in each room, and you're wandering from one into another, but they're separate. So you definitely are focusing on that one colour, different tones within that colour. So you are stepping into big boots there, especially with the white garden, you're going to be compared with Sissinghurst and other famous gardens around the world. So trying to take reference of certain things, but also put your own twist on it and bring it up to date. This is the Cascade Garden, and once again, it's another place where Russell's been working his plant and design magic. There's darmera, regal ferns, rogersias, all large leaf plants rubbing shoulders, enjoying the moist soil below. And there's a confluence here of beauty, utility and whimsy. You see it in all parts of the garden. You might be wondering where the usefulness of these ponds is. Well, each one of them has its own ladder for the newts. The newts themselves are lying low, but for the new garden named in their honour, a new chapter has very much begun. Having first been to Hadsburn House, as it was then, to see and film the popes, I think nearly 30 years ago, it's obvious I've got to go back now. Now, going from a grand, ambitious modern project to something very small, but absolutely fabulous, because I'm planting something now for winter fragrance. This plant here, which is winter sweet, doesn't look like anything in summer, but in winter, when all the leaves are gone, on the bare branches, little flowers are produced. They're only about an inch across, but they do have the most wonderful fragrance. But the reason I'm putting it up here is because in order to get really good flowers in winter, it needs as much sunshine as possible in summer. So I'm going to plant it in a pot, and I'll pot it out in this spot here, which is a sun trap, lots and lots of sun, and then it means I can move the pot to where I can smell it easily on a cold January day, which is fundamentally by the back door or the front door, neither of which gets enough sun in summer. But it is quite tough, and you can grow it in almost any soil. So you don't have to grow it in a pot. If you've got a warm wall, it will grow perfectly well against that. Now, this pot, you can see it's got cracks all over it. Bought it about six months ago, and practically the next day it was blown over in the wind and smashed. But someone very kindly has mended it for me, so hopefully it'll do the job. Now, I'm putting some crocks in the bottom, and then I'm using my normal potting compost with a little bit of grit and perlite added to improve drainage. Yeah, that's about right. So I'll take it out the pot. Now, I'm doing my normal trick of just damaging the roots slightly. I'm not trying to untangle them at all, but by breaking them, you stimulate regrowth from the break points. So we'll pop that in like that. That's perfect. And then put soil around it. Now, this will be hardy to about minus 10. So if it does get really cold, I'll keep it under cover for as long as that really cold snap lasts. Right, let's work that down. And that's it. Keep it watered. And when those flowers come, it's magic. Now, it's time to see one of your gardens. And this takes us to the Devon Coast, where I suppose they don't see minus 10 very often. And that means that however small the garden, they have opportunities to grow a range of really interesting plants. Hi, everyone. My name is Dina. This is my courtyard in a little town called Kingsbridge in Devon. And my space is about two meters by four meters. And I don't have any raised beds or anything. Everything's in pots. So I've had to learn about what works. It's a really small space. And you just need to make the most of the space you've got. A really good thing for courtyards is to have big plants, tall plants, big leafed plants. I'm trying to have things that go up as high as they can, but also mix it with leaves that look a little bit more tropical and bigger. So I've got hostas. I've also got a lot of pleasure out of my foxgloves, which go up really high. And I've got this fantastic umbrella plant here. When they're starting to seed, I just cut the sticks like this. And then I take them indoors. And then I've got a vase of umbrella plant flowers. And they just keep coming. The other really big tip I've got, fold up furniture. So my chairs fold up, which means that I can move them around easily, because maneuvering in the space is a bit difficult. But my ultimate tip to make it more of a flexible space is to get a disco mirror ball, because I've had so much pleasure. And during lockdown, when I was just here on my own, and this was my only outdoor space, I'd turn my tunes on and have my mirror ball going. I really like Dina's garden. And clearly it gives her a huge amount of pleasure. Of course, every garden should have a disco ball. Actually, you'd be surprised to learn that we have a disco ball up in the hall in the house. Occasionally, the lights flash and the music plays. Anyway, moving on swiftly at the thought of that to gladioli, which are now probably at their best. And as long as you give them plenty of light and air, they grow well, they give you intense colour at this time of year. And they're fun. Not all plants are meant to be tasteful and subtle. Some just want to shout out and strut their stuff, and none does it more so than gladioli. We cut them, sometimes individually, sometimes a bunch for the house. Now, look at that. I mean, those reds make your heart sing. Plants, of course, can create dyes. And Christine Lewis in Northamptonshire grows plants and creates a wonderful range of dyes from them. So this seems like a really good moment to enjoy her garden again. I enjoy dyeing textiles with plants because it's always a surprise. You never know what you're going to get from a plant. The colours that you see in a plant are not necessarily the colour that you're going to get on the fabric. And it's just a privilege to work with nature's beautiful palette. Back in 2012, I read an article in a magazine about how you could turn food waste and plants into colours for textiles. I was intrigued because, actually, I have formal training as a chef, and the two just seemed to go together. So off I went. I started to create my first dyes. We built the shed studio. Then it seemed only natural then to create my own dye garden. You have to be prepared to accept what nature gives you. So I work with the seasons. Here we've got examples of the plants that I use for dyeing, and they illustrate perfectly the changes that the seasons bring to the dye pot. This is dyed with nettles. This lighter shade here was one of the first dyes of the spring. As we go through, you can see that they're getting darker and darker. So today, it's a really good day because it's nice and warm to be harvesting the indigo. I'm not creating a fermented indigo vat that you would expect your indigo jeans to be dyed with, for instance. This is quite a unique colour, and it's called fresh leaf indigo. I understand that these can actually be regrown. If you pop them in water, they'll regenerate, so you can plant them again if you'd started early in the season. So there we are. You can actually see some of the blue coming out on these already. Hopefully, it'll be a good, strong dye. This is a great example of seasonal dyeing. We've got a small window opportunity from about July through to September. It's rather like making pesto. Okay, so that's done. So now, it's time to add the fabric. So we pop it in. It doesn't stain your hands too badly, not this one. The longer you leave it, the deeper the tone of colour you'll get. All right, I think that's ready now. So we just gently squeeze it so we don't lose any of our precious dye. And then, to release the blue, we plunge it into cold water. It's changing now, even in the water. As I lift it out, it's gone from the green to this vibrant turquoise. And as it hits the air, it will continue to develop for about 30 to 40 minutes. It's like magic. People often ask me how I make the dye stick. Well, we use something called mordants, which just means to bite. My most used mordant is actually soy milk made from soybeans. It makes the dye particles adhere to the threads in the fabric. In the middle of the winter, I'd be drawing on barks. I'll be sowing seeds and then the marigolds will come. As we go into autumn, I'll be using more of the hedgerow brambles and acorns. So it's a constantly evolving year for me. My favourite colours from dye plants are pinks and golds. I had a real surprise when just popping some dahlias into a dye pot. I got a fantastic gold. And I didn't grow them with the intention of dyeing. I grew them just for cutting. One day, I got a lot of heads that had dropped off this polka variety. So now I'm growing them, you know, in abundance, really. These will be dried. I can keep them and the colour variation isn't too great between fresh and dried. So that's wonderful. The other colour I like is the pinks and the corals through to reds that you can get from madder. It looks quite insignificant, but the colour all lies beneath. We grow madder for the roots. It's a labour of love, really, because once you've sown it, it takes at least three to four years for the roots to mature, enough for you to be able to get any dye colour from them. It's quite a juvenile plant, really, but look, the roots are coming on. You very, very gently simmer it and you'll get the beautiful, beautiful shades. It's right into scarlet reds. For anybody wishing to start out, just keep it really simple. Get a mixture of annuals, perennials and shrubs, because you'll be able to draw on things throughout the season. And remember, you don't have to have a big space. You can grow things in pots on the patio or even on a kitchen windowsill. When I look back on everything I've done with natural dyes, I can't believe the journey has been so rewarding. To know that I've actually grown the flower that's coloured the textile gives me such a good feeling. And it's just so lovely to be able to talk to other people about it and hopefully inspire them as well. I have to make a confession, because when I first saw that film, I thought it was wonderful. I still do. And I think her colours and her studio were so inspirational. And it certainly made me want to grow plants for dyeing. And so I cleared a bed in the cottage garden. Rachel came here and helped me plant. And we had woad and we had madder, all kinds of things. That was the high point, because I'm afraid it went downhill from there. The woad went to seed, which ruined it as a dye plant. The madder didn't thrive really. And it didn't look very good. However, there is still some calendula growing. And now is a very good time to sow party annuals like calendula. But you could sow in spring. And I've got some ammy here that I want to sow. Now, ammy magus is one of those stars of the garden. It's become dead trendy, because it's been used at Chelsea a lot. But rightly so, because it is wonderful. And it flowers in June and July and even into August, if you're lucky. But the secret to growing it well is to sow it in autumn and overwinter it. If you leave it till spring, it doesn't have time to develop into a big enough plant to make a decent display. So that's what I'm going to sow now. Now, you just need a seed tray, just normal seed compost. Peat-free, bark or coir-based compost is absolutely fine. Right, even it out. I like to give it a bit of a shake, get rid of any lumps and bumps. Now, there aren't many seeds in this, but we want to sow it thinly anyway. It really, really does help if you can sow seeds thinly. Now, it's a good idea just to gently push down. These tiny seeds need to make contact with the soil. So the next thing to do is just cover it lightly with soil. And you can use vermiculite or even grit for this. And then I will just firm that again. Water it well. Put it somewhere protected, but it doesn't have to have special heat. These will germinate on a windowsill. If you've got an unheated greenhouse, that will do absolutely fine. The seedlings will appear in about 10 days' time and they should be ready to prick out into plugs around about the end of October. Then store them overwinter. A cold frame is absolutely ideal or a cool greenhouse. So you're protecting them from the worst of the weather. And they won't grow overwinter until we get to about February. Then they will start to grow and they should be large enough to plant out in April. And by doing this, you are ensuring you get big enough plants to grow nice and strong and make a really good display round about the middle to the end of spring. Well, that's another of the jobs that are piling up at this time of year. We're trying to keep the garden looking good for as long as possible and yet planning ahead for next spring. And that can sometimes get in the way of what gardening is all about, which is just enjoying it. Which is what we've done with a wonderful garden in Worcester. Well, that garden in Worcester belongs to Sandra and David Traynor. And I have to say, I absolutely love the way that that kind of exotic planting creates all those foliage shapes and forms. But I am clinging on with a kind of hungry desperation to the flowers that are still firing away here in the jewel garden because I know we're on borrowed time. Almost everything you can see here from the cannas and the zinnias, tethonia, are all tender. But the star of this show, not necessarily in colour, but just in longevity of performance, is undoubtedly this salvia. This is salvia amistad. And it has been flowering since May and will go on after all the others are finished into November. And we might well risk leaving it outside because it is a little hardier than most. If you are going to buy just one salvia to give you rich, exotic colour, this is the one to get. Now, I'm just going to stand for a moment or two and bathe in the richness of colour all around me. But while I'm doing that, here's some jobs that you can do this weekend. If you have a pond of any kind, now is the time to cut back and remove any decaying or fallen plant material that would otherwise rot down into the water because this would increase fertility and the chances of more duckweed or algae. And this is a job you may need to return to on a number of occasions between now and the end of autumn. You can make your own turf for lawn repair very simply. Take a seed tray, fill it with compost, and then sprinkle over some grass seed, pressing it down so there is really good contact with the compost. Cover that lightly and put it somewhere sheltered. Keep it well watered and the grass will germinate and sprout very quickly. And then you can use it to repair warm patches. Now's the time to cut back the old flowering stems of Euphorbia wolfenii and all its hybrids. Now, do wear gloves for this job as the milky sap can be an extreme irritant if you get it on your skin and especially your eyes. But when done, this will leave your plants looking handsome all winter long. The grass borders just get better and better at this time of year. It's partly to do with their structure, these wonderful vertical lines. And then there are the colours. And these are faded, almost the exact opposite of jewel garden colours. Faded tapestry colours and yet touched with some richness. So the flower heads of Miscanthus malpatus start out as a burgundy-ruby colour and then they will turn golden and silver. I love this process. It's a kind of performance played out throughout the autumnal months. But that's it for today, I'm afraid. And I'm away again next week. However, Adam will be celebrating all our glorious gardens in a special programme at eight o'clock next Friday. And I'll be back here with you at Longmeadow in a couple of weeks' time. So until then, bye-bye.