Seed scattered and sown, and lawns grown and mown. Carole shows us an easy way to sow flower seeds while Jim toils away on the lawn. Then it’s sweet pea planting – scrambling v cordon-trained. Chris is back with Jenny and Euan MacLean in Linlithgow for a second visit to their nightmare plot and this time it’s dreamy breakfast-and-teatime terraces and the perfect pergola.
George is still in a tight corner tending his small-space vegetable garden. Carole visits Hamish McKelvie and his prickly friends in Houston, Renfrewshire. Since boyhood, Hamish has built up a huge collection of cacti.
The Beechgrove Garden episode 6
Jim, Carole and George were in the Cutting Garden on a bright, sunny morning at Beechgrove. The soil was well-drained and in good condition despite the surprising snow fall a few days earlier.
Jim and Carole were planting sweet peas and George was nearby planting chrysanthemums. Jim has chosen his sweet pea varieties for colour and fragrance, including an old variety ‘Airwarden’. Carole has chosen varieties that all have blue flowers. Jim is growing his sweet peas in the old-fashioned way as cordons (single stems) up cane wigwams.
Jim explained that his plants were ready to go in the ground. The seeds had been sown in an ‘open-book’ system (root trainers), which encourages good root growth and ensure that the roots do not get disturbed too much during planting out. After planting, Jim ‘stopped’ the plants by removing the shoot tip using scissors. This encourages the plant to produce some strong new shoots and then Jim will pick the best one to be the single cordon.
Seed scattered and sown
Carole was in the Long Border – this area has been revamped since the last series. The old sweet pea border has been turfed over and
the bed where the round courgettes were grown last year has been widened. Carole explained that she was not sure what to do with the bed on the right hand side as yet so she has decided to sow a green manure to cover the bare ground.
