The Beechgrove Garden 2022 episode 24: George Anderson and Calum Clunie are at Beechgrove, checking out more of what the garden has produced this year. Carole Baxter is visiting an expert grower of chillies, tasting the many varieties available, including some of the hottest. She also finds out the tricks of trade in growing this popular kitchen favourite.
At the garden, Calum is in the final stages of work on his own patch of Beechgrove. He sows his lawn area, while George plants some late fruit. Celebrating the great Scottish garden. Tips and advice to get the most out of your garden, with inspirational ideas from Scotland’s most beautiful green spaces. The Beechgrove Garden has been on air since 1978 and remains a firm favourite with audiences in Scotland. It consistently outperforms what is being screened by BBC Network in the same slot. At the heart of the series is a 2.5 acre home garden, situated on a cold, inhospitable slope west of Aberdeen, deliberately chosen to reflect Scotland’s harsher climate.
Horticultural advice in gardening magazines and on UK network gardening programmes is rarely suitable for most of the UK outside the South East of England. Beechgrove shares with its viewers the weekly challenge to work with the Scottish conditions to produce maximum yield of as many varieties as possible of fruit, flowers and vegetables.
The Beechgrove Garden 2022 episode 24
How to grow chilli pepper
Growing your own chilli peppers means you can choose from a huge array of colours, shapes, flavours and levels of heat – a much wider range than you can buy in supermarkets. Chillies are easy to grow in pots in a greenhouse or, after starting off indoors, can be grown outdoors in a warm sunny spot.
Sow seeds indoors from late winter to mid-spring – an early start will give you earlier and longer harvests.
Fill a small pot with seed compost, firm gently then sow a few seeds on top. Most seeds will germinate, so only sow a few more than you need, in case of losses. Cover with a fine layer of vermiculite, pop in a plant label and water. Seeds will germinate quickly in a heated propagator at 21ºC (70ºF) or simply put the pots on a warm sunny windowsill. Place a clear plastic bag over each pot, secured with an elastic band, to raise the humidity.
As soon as seedlings appear, take the pot out of the propagator or remove the plastic bag. Keep plants at 16–18ºC (60–64ºF) in good light and water regularly. When the seedlings are 2.5cm (1in) tall, move each one into its own small pot filled with multi-purpose compost. If you don’t have time to sow seeds, or don’t have a suitably warm, bright place to raise good plants, then buy young chilli plants from garden centres in late spring. Grafted seedlings can also be ordered from online suppliers for delivery from mid-April. These vigorous plants are especially useful where growing conditions are a little cool.
