Monty Don’s Gardening Tips For Transforming Tiny Spaces

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Join us on Gardener’s World as Monty Don dives into planning ahead by planting purple sprouting broccoli and offer tips for successful brassica cultivation. Learn about optimizing small spaces with vertical gardening solutions and themed designs. We delve into the diverse world of roses, from Bourbon to Floribunda, with insights on their care. The episode concludes with Monty Don’s special tour of his garden, Longmeadow, with guest Jimmy Blake, discussing various plants and gardening philosophies.

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Hello. Welcome to Gardener World. I’ve got a tray of purple sprouting broccoli here. And although we’re still in July and I won’t begin to harvest these till April, even maybe early May, it is important to be planning ahead. And these are one of the slowest crops in the garden, but purple sprouting broccoli eaten fresh is an absolute delicacy. We’re used to broccoli being a health food. And in fact, what’s normally sold is a form of calibri, which are great big green heads. Well, these are small purple florits and are sweet and tasty and completely delicious and worth taking up a bed for nine months of the year. So I will, as with all these bras, plant them good and deep and this will stabilize them. So you can see well down and then pack down firmly around them. Now these are going to grow about 3 4t tall. They will need staking and in order to develop their full potential with lots and lots of florits, they will need space. So the next one can go here. Now, the only disadvantage of brassacas in summer is that they attract the cabbage white butterfly. And there seem to be an awful lot of cabbage whites around this year. So, I’m going to have to net these once I planted them. Right, I’ll get the rest of this bed in and I should have enough plants left over to do another bed in the vegetable garden. Coming up on today’s program, Nick continues his story demystifying the rose. Now, these might not be the first roses that spring to mind when you’re looking to plant up your garden, but I’m hoping to convince you to try just one or two. We visit a national collection of diaramas, Angel’s Fishing Rods in Staffordshire. gives a real feeling of movement in the garden. They are so lovely as they dance around in the breeze. And I shall be cleaning up my wildlife pond, adding some plants and maximizing all the opportunities for as wide a range of life as possible. And last summer, I went to Ireland to visit Jimmy Blake’s garden at Hunting Brook in the Wikllo Mountains. And he is coming to visit me. In some respects, the writing garden has become the victim of its own success. And that’s certainly true of a small group of plants. This is seleni fimriata. It’s a bladder wart and I planted it because it’s got lovely delicate white flowers with little bubble behind them just touch with pink and they have a freshness and a lightness which exactly fits the mood of this garden but they spread and it is a bit of a thug. So what I’m going to do is have them and then add some more plants in to the space that I will have created. The first thing to do is just cut it back. As we start to think about going into August, it’s not a bad time to be moving plants, to be adding plants into the border because you can see what it looks like in high summer. If you do all that moving work in autumn or in spring, you’re having to imagine what it’s going to look like. Whereas now, if you do it, you have to cut them back. So, there may well not be a reflowering and you have to water them in. Well, you can get the context amongst all the other plants in the borders dead right. Tell you what, it’s humid today. Now, that was the easy bit. I’ll try and divide it up into relatively small pieces. You can see that coming out of the roots is fresh growth. And this is what happened. these roots which are really tough and strong. They grow laterally and then they throw up a mass of new shoots and it spreads very fast indeed and nothing else can grow in amongst it. But that’s a nice clump. Right. I am going to leave some of the seni in because I like it. I just don’t want so much of it. Then the pieces I’ve dug up, I’ve got a new home for. In fact, I’m going to plant it in a very different way. But first, let’s join Francis because she has been to Solehole in the West Midlands. And she’s helping people to make every space count, whether it be public space or the smallest of private areas. [Music] This is my first visit to the Chelmswood estate to meet a woman who’s made a real change here by bringing together her community to green up the space. [Music] Sarah Gil has lived here most of her life and she wants to show me something tucked away between the houses. Oh wow. Through Grow Organic, a social enterprise, she has created a community space filled with edibles and chickens that the residents call the victory garden. [Music] Who uses the space? Wow. So, we have a really broad cross-section of our community that use the garden. We work a lot with local residents who like to just come use the space as somewhere to socialize. But then we also have the school who want to send children to come to us to learn all about where their food comes from. And then of course we have our food growers who just love to grow all the food and then every Friday people can come in. They can just come and pick all of this for free. And you’re a local girl, aren’t you? So is that why you kind of wanted to get involved with this? Knowing local people, they can tell me what what they want um in their spaces. We can make every little space count. And when people come to us with a a problem about a plot of land or an area, quite often we can find the solution. Sarah has started a project at nearby Fillingham Court. She’s teaching the residents about gardening to inspire them to make the most of their communal areas and brighten up their balconies. Sarah’s asked me along to help design and plant the first three balconies over the next two days. And the first balcony is John and Meers in a sunny position on the first floor. Here it is. Here are your plants balcony. They’re beautiful. Do you enjoy using this outside? We do. It’s very important to just be able to open the drawer and come out. What sort of look do you like in a garden? Greenery and the colors. We like the countryside and we like nice smelling plants and that. Are you happy to give me a hand actually once again? Great. Let’s get started. Okie dokie. John and Mia’s balcony is 3 m x 1 m by 2 and as a first floor flat with a glass railing. Plants here are liable to get really hot. I’ve chosen plants that will tolerate these conditions. [Music] In any limited space, which obviously a balcony is, it’s a really good idea to go upwards rather than outwards. But always check beforehand whether you can actually attach anything to the wall. And here we can’t. So what I’ve got is this container with trellis attached to the back, completely detached from the wall, but still a very good support to climb things up. And the compost I’m using in this contains something called perlite, which will make the whole soil a lot lighter and it also adds some drainage as well. So it’s good for the plants, too. If you’re planting on a balcony, check the load it can take from your landlord or builder. Remember to take into account how much your pots and soil will weigh once they’re watered into this. I am putting a honeysuckle because Maya loves scent and that will give a beautiful scent when she’s sitting out here, especially in the evening. And that will climb all the way up here. And with some regular pruning, it won’t get too big. [Music] This is a plant that I think John will be well pleased with. It’s a gizbury and he’s always wanted to grow one. So, I’m putting one right here. Just a little bit of feed. So, high potachsh for anything that fruits. Plenty of water whilst the fruits are ripening. You should be well away. These are osteoporms which give a lovely splash of color which Maya asked for. But one thing that can cope with very little root space are strawberries. So I can just imagine John and Maya coming out here over an evening, plucking a strawberry as they go by and having a nice sit down, taking in the view. Quite jealous, really. Another nifty trick for getting some height is this. It’s a steel rod in a pot with some wood on the bottom of it to stop it from coming up. And then you just get these pots. Any old terracotta ones you can buy in a garden center. [Music] Then a small one to finish. Fill it with soil. Add a lot of plants. And there it is. I’ve used alpines which will thrive in this hot and dry position, but you could also try tumbling Mediterranean herbs instead. There we go. One tippy pot. I hope John and Maya like it. Oh, look at that. It’s lovely, isn’t it? It’s unusual. It is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Can’t believe it. Transformation. Really nice. I heard that you like gizberries. Yeah. Well, you’ve got your own now. Oh, goobury bush. One there as well. There’s only one this year, but maybe next year. Next year there more. Yeah, hope so. Life don’t get much better than this, does it? Strawberries and cream on the balcon. We have strawberries there as well. See, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Really hard. It’s a pleasure. Really is. I’m sure they’ve been around for ages, but I’ve never seen those tippy pots. I think they look really good. Anyway, we will be rejoining Francis later on as she tackles a couple more balconies with very, very different themes. Now, we made a new theme here in this little strip of grass because for 25 years, this was moan as a kind of halfway between a path and lawn. But what we’ve done this year is let it grow uncut, save for a strip down the middle. As well as the grass, I’ve been planting into it. We’ve added snow drops. We’ve added alchemilla and mollis and ragged robin. And now I want to add the seleni. I’ll break it up and just add small clumps along both sides. And the thinking is that the seleni will be held in check by the grass cuz grass tends to dominate wherever it grows. Now the first experiment will be to see how hard the ground is because of course I haven’t watered here at all. Well, not too bad. I’m just going to take a piece of turf out and then make a hole. You can see how dry it is. Let’s pop that down. But seleni is a tough plant and it will grow in really dry shade and it will grow in fairly wet ground. It’s very, very adaptable. Now, I’ll just take this right back so that when I mow it, I won’t cause any damage. And if you’re planting at this time of year, you’re not going to expect any flowering. All we want to happen is now soil is nice and warm. Hopefully, we’ll get some rain. And in any case, I’ll water these in. The roots will get established so that by next spring you’ve got nice strong plants that will perform well. Now my intention is to take out enough from the writing garden to space all the way down one side and then back down the other. What I want to do now is go back to the writing garden and start to fill up the space I’ve created with a new selection of plants. It’s always exciting to add new plants to any part of the garden. And I’ve got three plants here which I confess I’ve never grown before, but I’ve wanted to. And so now is a really good opportunity. Now the first is a lilyakia. This is Lysimakia candela. And unlike most limacis which can be pretty invasive, this one is not too bad. This one will form a clump but won’t spread. I’m going to put three plants where I took out the seleni. But before I do it, I am going to beef it up with a little bit of compost because this like all the simacas likes plenty of moisture, but it also likes good drainage. And adding organic matter to a soil is the best way of ensuring both good drainage and water retention. It can form that seemingly contradictory act quite happily. This is garden compost. Now that will just give it a good start in life. And I’ve got good healthy plants. You can see a root system like that where there’s plenty of root to be seen, but it’s not wrapped round and round. So, I don’t need to do anything other than place these in the ground. Now, pop that one in there. as well as the white flowers that go from midsummer into early autumn, the foliage will start to turn red. So although this is a white garden, that red will just add a touch of color as we go into winter. In this kind of situation, you have a choice to make whether you plant as a clump and essentially you’re planting three plants as one. This will make one indivisible clump or whether you space them. If you are going to make a clump, it tends to be easier to do it with odd numbers than even. But I’m going to put another clump behind it which will rise up. And this is a plant called leatric. It’s a leatric spicata album. It’s a sort of bottle brush flower. And if I group the three together in the space I’ve created behind this, this will grow up about four or fivet tall. And so we’ll have these spars that will curve and have these individual florits and then the bottle brush behind it. So let’s dig that out a bit. Now what both Alysakia and the leatric like is sunshine. Now both are really good for butterflies and bees. They give these late summer flowers just when they need the nectar most. So as well as looking good fantastic for wildlife. I’ve got a third plant here. This is picostigia. This variety is called Misman Manners, and it’s got that name because it has exceptionally good manners and doesn’t spread out where it’s not wanted. It’s fairly self-contained. Now, to make Miss Manners happy, what you need is sun, moisture, and good drainage. Well, there’s the powder that used to be my soil. That goes there. I think that will be good. At the moment there’s every possibility of a hostpipe man in certain parts of the country, but you can use watering cans. And the important thing is to use them judiciously. If you plant something, give it a really good soak. When you plant it, get the water down deep and the roots will go down and find it. Now, I use roses here in the writing garden. I use them in the orchard beds. In fact, they’re all over the garden. And Nick in his second part of the story of roses that he began last week now tells us how hybrid and fid bunders evolved. [Music] [Music] You’ll remember last time I was looking at old roses which are renowned for their beautiful flower and their intoxicating scent. Today I’m going to be looking at borbin tea and flora bund roses. And it’s these groups which are absolutely instrumental in the development of the genus. These might not be the first roses that spring to mind when you’re looking to plant up your garden, but I’m hoping to convince you to try just one or two. [Music] Orbin roses first came to prominence in the early 1800s and they really represent the link between old and modern roses. They have some quite distinct qualities to them. They have these deeply ruffled blooms which have oh the most intoxicating and delicious of scents. But the thing that makes them really worthy garden plants for me is the fact that they repeat bloom all the way through the season. Now this is a particularly good example of a borbin rose. It’s Madame Isaac Perier and it will do just that. It keeps on blooming from May through to October. Now, in terms of keeping these plants happy and growing well in the garden, it needs to be grown in a classic rose soil. So, humus rich, reasonable amount of moisture, but not too wet and lots of nutrients. So, it needs a good mulch each year of manure. Now, in terms of pruning over the winter, it needs about a one-third reduction. So, look down at the bottom there, get rid of one of those old stems, and it will trigger new growth, new stems, and lots of new flowering. I think another thing that makes them really worthwhile is that they’re incredibly social as a border plant. And you can see here they’re growing beautifully with nepita and with geranium rosanne underneath. And I think that level of socialization and that repeat flower makes them truly worthwhile garden plants. The period from the 1840s right through until the 1950s saw a huge expansion in the breeding of different rose groups across Europe. The cultivars produced were the forerunners of many of the roses we grow today. T- roses such as Mutabis arrived from China in the 1840s. Named after the tea clipper ships, they brought with them the promise of exciting new colors, including yellows and an ability to repeat flower. Unlike their predecessors, the old roses, these tea roses were hybridized with other older roses, producing hybrid tees. They started to arrive from France in about 1880 and they followed a quick succession of lots of different colors of these HT roses. Then directly after the war, a new and iconic rose appeared and this is it. It’s rose a piece and it has this beautiful pink edge to it on the outer petals and then yellow in the center and it’s gone on to become the bestselling rose in the world. It’s a beautiful plant, but for me it’s got one downside. There’s not really a very strong scent. However, there are two roses which I think are absolutely brilliant for scent. They’re both hybrid. There’s this one which is called deep secret and it has that lovely readyy burgundy crimson tone and it has a really rich sumptuous scent and long clear stems. And then tucked away just down there is another scented hybrid tea called Shandos Beauty. And for me that’s one of the most delicious citrusy spicy scents. Now, all of these HT roses are probably the easiest of all groups of roses to maintain. They need to be in a relatively heavy soil, lots of mulch, lots of food through the season, and their pruning couldn’t be easier. You can literally chop them down to about 8 in, about 20 cm in March time, and they’ll grow away for you brilliantly into the season. Of course, HTS are repeat flowers that will flower from May to November, but if you dead head them, you’ll keep them going even longer. So, despite the fact that hybrid tees are often derided for being a bit disease ridden or not particularly well scented, if you choose the right cultivars, I think they make really worthy and beautiful garden plants. [Music] These are flora bund roses and their name comes from the botanical Latin which literally means multiflowered and these guys certainly are. Now they first started to arrive in about 1900 and they are the result of crossing two different very useful parents. One is the polyantha rose which has masses of blooms in the clusters at the end of its stems and the other is the hybrid tea which repeats all the way through the season. And so the great thing about flora bund roses is they have the quality of both of those parents. This is arguably the most iconic of the lot and this is iceberg. It’s got that really clean pure white tone to it. It has clusters of flowers right on the end of the stems and it goes on for at least six months in the garden. But I think the rose that gets me most excited in the flora bund group has to be this. And this is burgundy ice. And I don’t think there are many other flowers that have quite this tone. It’s that beautiful sused burgundy with a pale back to the petal which really makes the whole thing pop. Now, in terms of maintaining these roses, they’re very similar to hybrid tees. They want a good rich soil, good moisture, and they can be pruned in a very similar way. [Music] Modern roses such as hybrid tees, flora bundas, and borbins have had a really bad wrap over the last few decades. But because of their ability to repeat flower, their incredible range of colors, the fact that some of them are brilliantly scented, and that you can mix them into other borders, I think they are absolutely due a revival. I do think it’s really good to demystify roses because they can seem intimidating. All those names and the different pruning regimes is enough to daunt a lot of people. And I confess that I didn’t really grow roses until I was in my mid-30s. I was put off by them. Uh then when I started to grow them, I realized two things. One, these are tough plants. They’re dead easy to grow. And two, they just give so much pleasure. And if you put them in the ground, any soil, more or less any situation, they will grow. And don’t be frightened if you’ve got growth coming out over a path or whatever, just prune it back. And then you can do a proper prune. And if in doubt, October is never a bad time to prune roses. And some of these will reflower, but quite a few of the older roses just give you three or four weeks of glory in June and early July, and that is more than enough for me. Now, still to come, Francis returns to Sully Hull and helps redesign two more balconies in contrasting ways. But first, we’re off to Staffordshire to visit Ruth Plant, who has one of the national collections of diaramas. [Music] The diarama is called the wand flower or the hairbell of Africa. People are very surprised when they see a diarama flower because they think that maybe it’s a grass, but they can’t understand why at the end they’ve got the most beautiful hanging bell. My name’s Ruth Plant and uh I live here at Utri Cottage with my husband Clive. We have a cottage garden uh which has vegetables at one end and a flower garden at the other end. Our name is plant and we are both really plantolics. Diuramas are part of the Iris family. Um but they’re a corn. They’re closely allied to cricosmia. The diurama season here starts towards the end of May and they all do have their flowering times and you can almost set your clock by them. So they have an order so I know when each one is going to flower. The individual flowers don’t last very long, especially when the bees get at them. The bees do love to pollinate them. They can go over the individual little bells just in a day. But because they come out in a spray, you might have a plant that might be in flower for a week, maybe two weeks, depends on the heat. After the diaramas have flowered, they’re still actually very beautiful. They have these lovely little bracks which are like little pieces of paper. They blow around in the meest hint of wind. Arching, nodding little heads. Gives a real feeling of movement in the garden. They are so lovely as they dance around in the breeze. People think because they come from Africa that they like to be dry and actually that’s not the case. They grow in areas where there is summer rainfall. They quite often grow in marshy meadows. What they do in the wild is they put their roots down long and deep right down beneath rocks and so they get a good water supply. So they like plenty of water, but they like to have it drained away so they don’t sit with wet feet. But if they’re in too dry an area, they won’t flower. And if you put them in a mixed border, it’s too much competition from other plants. So the reason that I grow our diarama in gravel beds is the gravel stops the competition. It aids the good drainage, helps keep them moist at the roots, but underneath that gravel is good retentive soil, and that’s when they’ll grow well. So once the first diuramas were planted in the gravel bed and really started to get going, then of course it was really open season for me to buy more. And then I got interested in the whole diarama species and I started to realize that there were far more available than you actually see in in the average garden or nursery. And I reached the point where I thought, well, actually, I’ve got enough here to consider talking to Plant Heritage about whether there was enough to be a a collection site so that other people could come and see them. In terms of numbers, we have around about 100 species and maybe 23 cultivars. Life would be very dull without the excitement of growing the plants. And when they flower, it’s the pinnacle of achievement. And I’ve got the most beautiful result. This is Diarama Sarestro. And isn’t she beautiful? She’s one of my favorites. And as you might be able to see, one of the favorite of the bees as well today. She’s got the most beautiful burgundy plum flowers that hang down so gracefully. As you can see, she’s quite tall. She’s as tall as I am, so you can look her right in the eye. She’s also got very nice papery brown bracks, which you can see just above the flower there. And they really add, I think, to the contrast and the gracefulness of this beautiful diarama. This is diarama argurium. So this is one of the national collection reference plants. This is white with a lime sort of green blush that’s showing through the base of the flower. And inside it’s got little tiny eyes right at the center of the plant. Doesn’t flower for very long, but it’s an unusual color break and you won’t see it very often. This diarama only grows to about two foot. So, it’s a smaller diarama. Um, and that’s the height it would reach in the wild. This is a diurama Westminster chime seedlings. So what’s happened is the parent plant which is just behind me I’ve not taken the seeds off quickly enough and some have managed to broadcast across the area and where they’ve lodged in the cracks of the paving stones. They’ve germinated and have grown and are really happy. So it’s a good example of where they will grow. Um they’re getting us deep root run underneath the paving slabs that’s cool and there’s no competition from plants around it. So it’s getting all the water that’s in the particular area. It’s very tall and it has a pink flower and it’s a pulcherum type. Pulcherum means beautiful and it’s very very classic bell shape. The petals don’t turn up at all and it has these rather nice white translucent papery bracks as well which I think really set off the bell. A very lovely plant. Everybody should have a diarama in the garden. They are the most fantastic plant. There’s nothing like the joy when you can see that finally your diarama has come into flower. Such a pleasure. Every garden ought to have diaramas, but not every garden can have it because it doesn’t like cold, wet winters. However, it is surprising how many plants have liked both the cold and wet of last winter and the baking heat of this summer. These heleniums, for example, have never been better. This is sins early. It’s been flowering for about three weeks now. The bees are obsessed by it and with any luck it will go on flowering despite the fact that it’s never been watered or had any kind of special treatment whatsoever. This is the wildlife garden which I made a couple of years ago to really maximize the opportunities for wildlife of all kinds as well as keeping it a garden. Well, now the first thing you have to have is a pond. And a wildlife pond has one or two features that make it particular. The first is that it has a beach for at least a quarter if not a third of its area. And by beach, I just mean a shallow entry. So this has got pebbles here. The water’s very shallow and then gradually gets deeper, but still quite shallow right in there. And that means that any visiting hedgehogs or other small mammals or even birds and frogs can easily get in and importantly get out. The second thing that is essential for a wildlife pond is it must have cover and lots of it. However, this has got too much. I need to thin it out a bit to strike that balance. Now, I’ve deliberately not worn wellies because I don’t want to get in the water because that would disturb the creatures in the mud. And there is bound to be mud at the bottom. I want that. So, I’m just going to reach in from the edge. And the real thug is this iris, the yellow flag iris that you see in ditches and ponds around the land. And inevitably, it takes over. So, if I reach in and just yank. There we are. We can take out great lumps of it at a time. That’s coming. That can come out. That can come out. It does smell a bit whiffy, but that’s the mud at the bottom. This will of course grow back. So this time next year there will be as much again. So I’m just thinning it. And what I’m going to do is turn these round so that they’re on the beach so any little creatures that are in the roots there have a chance to go back into the water. And I will leave these for a day or two just to ensure that I’m not depriving them of house and home. Other than topping it up with water in spring, this is the first bit of sort of gardening work I’ve had to do on this pond this year. And it’s providing a really important resource for every kind of creature in this garden. But the wildlife garden isn’t just about water. We’ve got trees with berries and flowers. We’ve got undercover for birds, but we have got a few bear patches. So, I’ve bought three verbina bonarians, which are brilliant for butterflies and bees in late summer and early autumn. And I’m going to plant those. Now, importantly, this is facing absolutely south. Maximum sunshine. a nice high hedge behind it. Hedge is brilliant for birds and also protecting them from cold and strong winds. And so we have a little microclimate. That’s one. And if things go well, this can grow in our soil five, six foot tall by the end of summer. I think the biggest change that’s happened in recent years with our approach to wildlife and gardens is that we now value and respect insects so much more than we used to. And I think all of us realize that if we make our garden good for insects, then the garden is going to be good for us. And in the bigger scheme of things, good for all life. And you can make a wildlife garden in the smallest of spaces. And talking of very small gardens, Francis returns to Sullihole to make two more truly tiny gardens on two more balconies. I’m helping community leader Sarah Gil inspire the residents of Fillingham Court to plant up some of their communal areas and balconies. [Music] Now it’s Carol’s turn. She lives on the ground floor. So, do you garden a lot, Carol? I used to. Um, but at the moment, because I’m not mobile, I’ve really missed being able to get out onto the balcony. So, just to sit here and look out at the wonderful plants, the flowers, that’s my ideal. I can see that you’re a woman with a strong design aesthetic and, you know, the way your house is so beautifully decorated. I do like something a little bit different. I love the shabby chic feeling, the French feeling. So, we can make that whole scene like a sort of picture that you can see from in here, which will be a really nice challenge. It will to bring the inside to the outside. Sort of a romantic feel. Yes. I’ve I’m a romantic at heart. Is there anyone here that could give me a hand? Yes. My other half wherever he is and I can just sit and watch what’s going on and I’ll enjoy every moment of it. [Music] Carol’s balcony is all about the aesthetic. So, I want to make her some lovely troughs full of cottage garden plants because that’s what she loves. And normally you think about the tallest thing maybe being in the middle, but here because it’s viewed from the living room and making a sort of picture frame, I’m going to put the tallest plant, which in this case will be a perovky, a Russian sage, right on the edge. So that acts like a framework that then leads into the rest of her cottage garden scheme. [Music] Carol’s house is full of roses because it’s her favorite plant. So, I thought bring it out here. This is a lovely rose. It’s called Earnest H. Morse and it’s got a beautiful deep mauve flower. [Music] To lead this whole pot down into the next, I’m going to plant an apita or catmint, which has a lovely sort of flopping habit. You can cut it back really regularly. It will keep flowering all summer long if you do that and make a lovely mound of very nicely scented foliage. So, it’s a lovely plant in general, but I think just here it sweeps beautifully into the whole rest of the balcony. [Music] I’m going to introduce some texture with lavenders and fennels. The lavenders have a beautiful color and a lovely form and the fennel just so soft and delicate. But in between these plants, it will just tie the whole thing together. [Music] I’m adding Cosmos and Companula to give some punches of color and soften the edges. [Music] And I filled a second tub with plants whose scent will waft into her flat. [Music] To give color right through from spring to late summer, I’m getting some perennials into small pots with the help of Carol’s partner, Phil. Any plants that are on balconies are almost always going to be in containers. And when you have plants in containers, there’s one thing you need to remember, and that’s watering. A really good way of getting water right into the roots of plant is getting an old plastic bottle, cutting the bottom off, screwing some holes in the lid, and then putting it into the soil. I’ve put one in here right by this row, so I can give it a really good drink. And now for the finishing touches that will give Carol the look she’s after. So Carol, what do you think? Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely fantastic. And I love the way you’ve made a feature of the bird cage. Well, you know, I saw it and I thought it I was crying out for it. This time next year it would be really established out here. It would be absolutely beautiful. I love everything you’ve done. Now, onto the last balcony. Jack and Joan have already put some cheerful pots on their balcony, but they want more lush planting around them without taking up runaround space for their dog, Doy. Joan and Jack are real plants people, so I want to give them some really interesting different plants and things that require maybe a little more maintenance. What I’m putting together here is a living wall. Now, Sarah’s team have made this wooden structure, which they’ve lined with plastic and filled the whole thing with compost and soil from the top. So, it’s full and these pockets will contain some lovely plants. So, we’ve got some annuals here, but the nice thing about that is it gives a real chance for some color, some lush foliage, and some slightly tropical fields. I’ve already started this and you can see the sort of pattern I’m going to create as it goes up. So, I’ve got some ders here, red ones, and these lovely penacetum which have beautiful red color. As well as that, there’s some kolas with very, very big, generous, colorful foliage. And when the whole thing is complete, it should look absolutely stunning. [Music] And just watering the top. You can hear that will trickle all the way down through and save you a little bit of time. Just to keep everything nice and healthy, it’s always good to put a bit of liquid feed in this, especially through the summer. And if you want to save yourself even more time, you can get an automatic irrigation system that will do it for you. But I think it looks superb. With permission, you could try and borrow some communal space to give you extra planting areas. We’re putting in a narrow bed just outside Jack and Jones flat so they can see the flowers through the glass. The residents have joined Sarah and I to fill it with a splash of tropical color. Do you like it? It’s absolutely lovely. Very gorgeous. Very gorgeous. It’s all right. Their work is done. And from Joan’s emotional reaction, I think we’ve got her balcony transformation spot on. [Music] The last two days have been fantastic. We’ve created a garden full of scents and herbs, a French country garden, and a living wall and tropical bed that gives residents a pop of color. Time to celebrate. [Music] You know, you’ve been inspired to have your balcony done, too. I have. Yes. I’d like it done. Sarah is working hard with this community to inspire more people to join in with planting up their balconies and to lend a hand to help transform their neighborhood into a beautiful, greener space for everyone to enjoy. I do think that if you’re gardening in a very small space, there just two things that you need to bear in mind. The first is you just have to edit. You can’t have everything. So, you need to work out the theme that you want just as Francis showed and stick to it. And the second thing is go up. There’s always some vertical space and it means you can grow a lot of things including food. For example, these cucumbers, which I only planted out three weeks ago or so, are really growing well. They grow up in pots. You could grow these on a balcony. And these are flowering well and starting to produce small fruits. And at this time of year, it is important that as well as watering regularly, particularly in the sort of weather we’ve been having to feed. Fruiting plants are really boosted by the right feed at the right time. So if you take chilies and peppers, they like an early start. You sew them January or February and then feed them a nitrogen feed to get nice big plants. And the bigger the plant, the more fruits you’ll have. But as soon as the first fruits form, then you need to change the feed so that it’s high in potach. And what I give these is about twice a week a liquid seaweed feed. And that does the job. And what that promotes is instead of of leaf and stem, it promotes flowers and fruit. And if you feed these now right through till October, they will go on producing fruits and in some cases until Christmas. And so just take a watering can, add some seaweed. So just water that in. And you can see these are quite small pots. And that’s deliberate because I want to slightly stress the plant to get good quality flavor as well as quantity. The plant needs to feel that it’s on the edge. The secret of feeding flowers or fruit is little and often. Don’t try and give them a great wadge of feed and expect them to react. A dilute weak feed once or twice a week throughout the summer is the answer. Now, I’ve got a special guest arriving. Last year, I went to Ireland to visit Jimmy Blake’s garden, Huntingbrook, near Wikllo. And I was so inspired by my visit, I wanted to return the hospitality and show him around Long Meadow. This is I always filled the engine room really. This is where all the action happens. There’s a potting shed there and the propagation greenhouse. These are great, aren’t they? I never quite know with onions how much they will go, how how far to take them. I would definitely have them in richer soil really. Like I have them in the ground. I always tell people to get them out of pots for the summer. Get them into the ground. They love to be in soil for for the summer and then if you wanted to propagate it, it’s quite fun. um just to cut off a cutting like that and put it in a jar. Yeah. Jar of air and just leave it in the air and then the roots start forming just without any growing media at all. And then the roots will form very quickly actually and pull it up. Cold frames, standing out beds, nothing terribly exciting at the moment at this stage. This is a new herb garden. It’s been made from scratch in the last year or so. The soil here is really poor because it was an old yard and which is why I put in thyme and sage and rosemary. But um the fennel likes it. That fennel’s amazing, isn’t it? Fennel has always loved this garden and we’ve always loved fennel. And when it’s like that to my mind, you can’t better that. It’s like sculpture, isn’t it? Look at those stems. I know. I don’t cut it back at all because I love the seed. What about the Valyan? Would you cut that back? I mean, if you didn’t want it to seed everywhere, you’d cut it back. But what I like about this garden is that that looseness in the middle of all the structure. Like, it’s just it’s wild with structure. Well, that’s exactly the plan. So, thank you. That’s exactly sort of ordered chaos. And what’s the fern there? The fern is dryus felix mass is the main one. Obviously completely dry shade underneath these lines. I grow this in meadow at home. Do you? It’s a beautiful meadow plant just coming through wild grasses. So you cut around them. Yeah. Cut around them. Yeah. And make it nice and neat around them this time of year. Okay. That’s a good idea. That’s a very good idea. I mean, what we find about these is that they look great well into Christmas. I find it hard to use one plant. I think I’m going to copy this. I’ll be. And funnily enough, this little slither of ground in here was the very first bit of garden to be made. Now, I want to ask some advice. Why did my redemption lute not flower this year? Whereas for the past 2 or 3 years, it’s flowered completely happily. It’s definitely that when you’re when you’re planting a roded end, you need to look up and there needs to be a good big circle of light, right? Like a good big circle of light that when you look up there, there’s actually very little light. So this winter I need to do a big cut back. Yeah, definitely. That’s good advice. Okay, we come through here. So that’s the little intimate space. This is the cottage garden, which used to be the vegetable garden. In here, I feel completely free to grow whatever I like. I wouldn’t, you know, if I want to put cabbages in here, I would be quite relaxed about it. Isn’t it nice to have an area like that? I’m just going to start a new um a new area down the field where nobody sees where I can just put anything in. Yeah. But you see, with you, I get the feeling that you fall in love with plants, individual plant, and you want them badly. And then you’ve had them, you’ve done that, you’re fickle. Whereas I try and the garden sort of slowly builds. To me, it’s I’m quite happy if it takes me 10 years to get an area right. Yeah. Like the new bed we did this year, you know, I wanted that looking well within 6 weeks and I’m completely buzzing with it because it’s new. But how long is that sustainable for? What how long do you think you will have that buzz? The boredom sets in after a few years. Yeah, four or five years. 5 years is a long time. Now, if we come through here, this is a a happy accident. Oh, which I really love that. Love it. It’s amazing. It’s fun, isn’t it? It’s good fun. And it’s never It’s never looked like that before. I’d love to do that. You could do that. Mind you, I’d love to do what you do. Okay. Completely different thing. Now we have grass borders on our right. Yeah. And the jewel garden on our left. I was toying with with making this U hedge go right up. And in fact, last year it was up here. And now I’ve taken it down. I think you have enough high hedges. These pots we normally do a different display every year and it can it can vary and can be quite complicated. This year I just thought let’s bung some cannas in. Yeah, they look good. You know I mean I had the plants. It’s strong enough, isn’t it? Yeah. I don’t think they need anything else. No, I find cannas difficult at home. Difficult to get into flower, but last year I gave them enormous amount of food. Yeah. And they grew they grew huge and they flowered really well. Yeah. So, I think I wasn’t feeding them enough. They’re hungry. They are hungry and thirsty. Yeah. They are. I mean, what we do is the potting compost is at least a third garden compost. Yeah. Yeah. Then we give a liquid seaweed feed once a week. Oh. Right through the growing season. Right. From about June to October. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy, I’ve been to your garden twice and each time I’ve come back full of ideas. Is there anything you picked up from this visit that you might take home? I think it’s definitely the structure. I suppose it’s the looseness of the structure here. You know, you look at all these plants. You’re letting them seed around through the box hedges. I think it just really works. I’ve loved it. Thank you. Thanks very much. It’s always great to talk about gardens, but there are jobs that need doing. And here are yours for the weekend. [Music] The hot dry weather has meant that the garlic crop has dried out beautifully and now it’s ready to store. I found the best method is simply trim the roots, cut off the necks, remove any dry or soiled outer skin, and store them in a basket. The prolonged hot dry weather means that all our gardens have an unusual amount of dead or dried up leaves. So go around the garden cutting these back, removing them from the stems, and this will spruce and tidy up the garden. My own tomatoes are a little behind this year, but many people are finding that theirs are starting to ripen, and this is the moment to remove the lower leaves. Cut them back at least to the bottom truss, and this will improve ripening and also air flow, which will reduce the risk of blight. Jimmy, it’s been a real pleasure having you in the garden. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’ve had a wonderful time. Looking forward to coming back maybe in in spring. Yep. It’s a date. Definitely. And you even bought us a little bit of rain. Tiny bit of rain. Yeah. Stay longer. You can have some more. I’m afraid we’re not staying any longer cuz that’s it for today. But I’ll see you back here at Long Meadow next time. Till then, bye-bye. [Music]