The Beechgrove Garden episode 21 2020

The Beechgrove Garden episode 21 2020

The Beechgrove Garden episode 21 2020: George has taken cuttings from everything from clematis to pineberries and now that they have rooted, he demonstrates what to do next.


 

 



Kirsty has filled her flat with houseplants so she is looking for clever ways to display them and has a go at using a head planter to unusual and amusing effect. Sophie is back in her allotment with ideas of how to make the most of the harvest.

Beechgrove is a hardy annual TV gardening series which sets out to deal with, glory in and celebrate Scottish horticulture and growing conditions. Beechgrove is and always has been a firmly practical, get-your-hands-dirty gardening programme which delights in success but also learns from failures in the garden and never takes itself too seriously.

 

The Beechgrove Garden episode 21 2020

 

Pleached walks, tunnels and arbours

Pleaching is a method of training trees to produce a narrow screen or hedge by tying in and interlacing flexible young shoots along a supporting framework. Use this technique to make walks, arbours, tunnels and arches.

Tilia (lime) is the most commonly used tree for pleached walks; usually the red-twigged lime (Tilia platyphyllos ‘Rubra’). Ash, beech, chestnut, hornbeam and plane can also be pleached, as can apples and pears. These can often be obtained ready trained.

Laburnum and wisteria are favoured for pleached arbours and covered walks, especially tunnels, which show off the attractive flowers perfectly. Use wisteria grown from cuttings or raised by grafting, as it will flower more reliably and uniformly than seed-raised plants, and Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’ is a better choice than seed-raised L. anagyroides.

Always select young, whippy plants that are more easily trained for any pleaching. Plant in winter and during the early years also prune in the winter when the plants are leafless and dormant. Train and tie new shoots in over the summer. Once pleached trees have reached their full extent, prune in the summer, pruning to shape the tree growth and reduce its vigour.

How to grow onions tips in Beechgrove Garden

Onions are such a versatile vegetable – they feature in so many recipes, and growing your own means you’ll always have them to hand. They are easy to grow from baby onions, which are called sets. Although seed is available, sets are the easiest and quickest way to grow onions.

Water if the weather is dry and give an occasional feed with a general liquid fertiliser. A light feed of sulphate of potash in June will help ripen the bulbs ready for storage. Stop watering and feeding once the onions have swollen in mid summer.

Onions need a sunny, sheltered site with fertile, well-drained soil. Onions do not thrive on acid soils (below pH 6.5). Before planting improve the soil with a bucket of garden compost or well-rotted manure for every square metre (yard) and add 35g per sq m (1oz per sq yd) of general purpose fertiliser such as Growmore. Plant onion sets (immature onions) 5-10cm (2-4in) apart in rows 25-30cm (10-12in) apart from mid-March to mid-April. Gently push the sets into soft, well-worked soil so that the tip is just showing, and firm the soil around them.

How to care for your aeoniums

In the warmer months of the year the stone garden in Lady Anne’s Garden is home to a wonderful display of tender succulents in pots. Visitors often ask questions regarding the very structural and unusual Aeonium arboreum ‘Atropurpureum’, one of the most frequent being; “how can I get my single-stemmed aeonium to branch out like yours?”

I tell them that we just prune it… I remove the top growth of the dominant stem (leader) in order to stimulate growth of lateral buds. It’s just like pinching out your summer bedding plants to make them bushier.

Aeonium arboreum ‘Atropurpureum’ and Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’ AGM are tender succulents and will need a bright, frost-free environment over the colder months. Use a sharply-drained soil and watch out for vine weevil grubs. As the plants get bigger they can get top heavy and tricky to move around so be careful not to snap them. Place them back out in your garden during the summer months and show off your handy work.

 

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