Gardeners’ World 2025 Ep25 | Monty’s Rose Plans, Sweet Peas & a Floristry Revolution

In Gardeners’ World 2025 Episode 25, Monty Don prepares for a vibrant season ahead by planting daffodils, sowing sweet peas, and adding a rose to the new Dog House. 🌹🌼 He also offers expert tips on pest control in the greenhouse.

Rachel de Thame explores a floral revolution at an eco-friendly flower farm in Oxfordshire, while Adam Frost visits a stunning garden in North Yorkshire that beautifully blends planting design with natural landscapes.

Plus, the flower beds of Glyndebourne inspire costume design at the opera house, and two retired police officers in Devon share their peaceful garden creation.

#GardenersWorld2025 #MontyDon #SweetPeas #FloristryRevolution #GardenDesign

Hello. Welcome to Gardener’s World. This is Fyeria. Fyeria Angustifolia and it’s become one of my favorite evergreens. It actually has tiny white fragrant flowers in spring. And the beauty of it is that it copes very well with extreme heat and drought. Fyeria is a member of the olive family and the more you clip it, the denser it gets. It lends itself to cloud pruning. But won’t be long before all this dies back and the garden is looking a bit stark. And that’s where clipped evergreens, be it U box, holly, lonera, or fyeria like this, start to become really important. So if you clip them now and get them into the shape you want, they’ll barely grow throughout winter, hold that shape, and give you winter green, which is really important, and winter structure. Now, coming up on today’s program, Rachel has been finding out why the world of cut flowers is undergoing a dramatic shift. There’s a new trend that’s definitely building momentum, and that’s to use perennial plants, whether they be shrubs, habaceous perennials, or even climbers. We meet two former police officers who have joined forces to create a superb garden in their retirement. I try to implement the beautiful designs that Carrie comes up with. The translation sometimes can get a little muddled or a little heated or a little heated. Adam has the rare opportunity to visit a spectacular garden that is a masterclass in incorporating its design into the surrounding environment. You’ve got that view. So, you’re thinking, well, why even bother creating a garden because that’s going to win every single day. But actually, this is absolutely breathtaking. and we pay a visit to Glimbore to see how they are using their garden to add color to their operas. Here we’ve got the marolds which produce orangey shades of colors. It’s a lovely piece of silk so it’ll be really glimmery and and shimmery when it’s finished. [Music] Now the doghouse is finished on the outside at least we can move on to the next stage because at RHS Chelsea we clad the walls with all sorts of climbers and plants to make it look as though it had been there for ages and feel as though it was somehow emerging out of wooden. Well, I don’t need to do that here, but I would like to use it to grow roses. So, I’ve got two roses. And of course, because it’s the writing garden, the roses themselves are white. [Music] Now, before you plant any rose, particularly a climbing rose, you do need to prepare the ground. The soil here is very compacted and very dry. So, I’ve dug it over. You need to get right down. And if you can make sure you break the compaction as deeply as possible. Now this is a modern rose. It’s called cheek to cheek and grows about 7t wide and about 5t high. So it is not a big rose. I don’t want to plant it there. That’s the wrong position. It needs more room. It needs to come back to here. When you plant any climber of any kind against a wall or a building, bring it out at least a foot and twice that if you’ve got the room. And then I will get a cane and angle the growth back to the wall where I will have wire supports. The intention is to train it under the window and up the other side and up here. So that’s going at that spot. One, it gives the roots a chance to grow outwards and not just in one direction. And two, if there’s an overhang of the roof or a gutter, that will shelter them from rain. So, just plant it away from the wall. If your ground is as dry as this, instead of planting and then watering, you water and then plant. So fill the hole with water and let it drain away. Then put the plant into damp soil. Nine times out of 10, I would not advise adding any kind of compost or enrichment to a planting hole cuz all that does is encourage the roots to stay in the hole. Whereas what you want them to do is go out into the soil. However, because this is so powdery and dry, I’m going to add a little bit of compost underneath the rose just to give it a bit of substance to hold moisture. Pop that in underneath like that. Take this out of the pot. And the level you’re looking to plant it at is ideally about the level of where my finger is, about an inch below the surface. And there are two reasons for that. One is to secure it in the ground. And two, it’s much less likely to sucker because this part here is different to the top. It’s been grafted onto it. And if it’s above ground, you get shoots coming from the graft, which will be different to the rose. Now, what I’m going to do is back fill half of it, then water it, let it drain away, and then back fill the rest of it and water it again. The reason why the water is green is because I’ve taken it from the water butt by the greenhouse which has sat pretty stagnant for weeks and weeks if not months. So, it’s turned a bit green, but the water will be fine. Okay, now I will fill back on top of that. Right, I need to go and fill this up and put more water in. So, I will water it, then mulch it, and then that’s set up. Right, while I go and get more water, we’re going to join Rachel in Oxfordshire as she visits a flower farm with a difference. [Music] There’s a quiet revolution happening in the world of cut flowers and florestry. In part, it’s a reaction to our changing climate, but one that brings many advantages. When you talk about cut flowers, most of us immediately think annuals, those delicious, colorful zenyas and cosmos and sweet peas. But there’s a new trend that’s definitely building momentum. And that’s to use perennial plants, whether they be shrubs, habaceous perennials, or even climbers, all put together to make the most exquisite arrangements. Rachel Seagreed started growing cup flowers here in 2008, focusing mainly on annuals. When she decided to take on additional space, she chose to pivot to perennials. You filled it with shrubs and perennials, but what was the real sort of thinking behind that change? It was a bit unthinkable for it to be all annuals because we all know they are a lot of work. Also with climate change in the past sort of eight years with prolonged periods of drought and the rain I had a lot of crop failures and I just have to have guaranteed flowers. And when you say perennials you’re talking about everything from woody plants so shrubs through to herbaceous perennials. So it’s quite a broadspread. It really is. It includes climbers grasses. I will even push it into tender perennials like ders. But you are still growing some annuals. I kind of need them obviously for volume, color. It’s very exciting actually. It is for someone wanting to make arrangements just to come and stand here. It creates a difference in your florestry which I don’t think you can fully accomplish with just annuals. [Music] So, what do you see as the benefits really of growing predominantly perennials? Well, they’re less work. I mean, for example, we’ve got this echanatia here, white swan. I did sew it from seed, but I only had to sew those seeds once, and then I grow them into these lovely big plants. And if I do want more in the future, I can just divide. Yeah. But they will happily sit here for years without me really doing very much at all. They’re also not supported. All of our annuals have to be supported with a plastic netting. But I find perennials mostly can stand up for themselves. Keeping with these sort of daisy shapes, the heleniums are spectacular. I’m particularly pleased with this very tall golden variety which is called Luke. When flowers have that two-tone, they act as a bridge so that you can bring together different colored focal flowers with them. [Music] Oh, just look at these beautiful deliniums. Rather surprisingly, Rachel assures me that she sewed the seed for these this year. So we’ve got all this growth, this amount of flower in the first year, which is incredible. You do want to get really good type. And these are called the new millennium series. And they’re beautiful. Come in a range from white through these soft moes and blues and even with a touch of lilac as well. And they’re only going to get better. You get about 10 years perennial growth out of these. They’re even taller than me. She also cuts them right back almost to the base after the first flowering sends up a new flush of flowers. So you’ve got more beautiful blooms in the garden and sensational in a vase. Using shrubs as cut flowers offers so many more options when creating a floral arrangement. I don’t think many of us consider shrubs when we’re thinking about what to grow for cutting, but actually, of course, shrubs, trees, the ultimate perennial plants. My father loved them, so I grew up with a lot of them. And he did have a snow berry, but I don’t remember it looking much like this. And it’s something you really might want to consider. Wonderful, wonderful plant because it’s got this lovely compact shape. And then you’ve got the little flowers which the bees absolutely love too. And later on these berries and they can last on the plant right up to November. Another of the shrubs that’s really caught my eye is this ailia. It’s good for many reasons. It’s got small leaves so they’re sort of delicate and it’s not overwhelming in an arrangement. And then it sends up these nice long rather whippy stems. They’re quite soft, but they also just give that structure when you’re trying to compose something. The flowers are tiny, really, really small. Much beloved by pollinators, incidentally, but the whole thing just has a lovely sort of softness to it. So that although it’s a shrub, it’s got that lightness and delicacy of touch. I think it’s a really good one to try. Rachel also grows perennial climbers. This enchanting clemetus caillou has tiny light purpley pink bells that will cascade from your arrangement lasting for up to 10 days. But there’s one perennial she can’t live without. Well, this is a picture in itself. You know, the grass here growing through the sort of mow. It’s lovely, isn’t it? How important do you think grasses are for cut flowering? Oh, I think they’re they’re very important. They’re what I call the sort of final flourish of an arrangement, the dancers um that add air and movement. I think they’re lovely. I do grow some at home actually for specifically for that purpose. But I can see I need to add a few more. And this is just gorgeous. Yeah, I do love the penacetums. And this is the easiest one to grow. It’s penacetum velo the feather top grass. and I’ve just grown it from seed. Um, but it’s terribly perennial as long as your soil is well drained. I do have to say that. Okay. And it’s cut and come again. This is a beauty. But what other things would you recommend? Well, for this time of year, late summer, autumn, I love to pick chasmthium, the oak grass. It’s a bit like a breezer. It’s got that same sort of little nodding heads. Um, and it’s also got really good autumn color. [Music] I think this is already a picture, don’t you? This it is combination that we’ve got on the table. So, yeah, cut some lovely things. I love the rose of glora. Is that what you’re starting with? I always like to start with my woodies because they create the framework, the foundation of my arrangements. What I like to work on next are the focal flowers. So, we’ve got some beautiful roses here. So, I would probably pop in one of those. Yeah. Which one is this one? This one is Steven Ruo. So, if you are a fan of the sort of toffee colored roses, this is one of the strongest growers out of those. So, I’m just working those into my hand. My hand becomes like a bars. Absolutely gorgeous. What about spires or something taller? Yeah, I think a bit of height now would be nice. One of the holly hawks. So perhaps some of this gorgeous shrubby holly hawk parley. It’s picking up the colors in the rose really well. Would it be mad to put some of the mlea in? Not at all. I mean the mcle here now that it’s in seed, it’s almost like a grass. That’s really beautiful. And I love not only that you’ve got these subtle colors all working together, but the sense of of movement, the texture. Yeah. As well. Perennials do that so well, don’t they? [Music] It is interesting. I’ve heard more and more people, more growers growing perennials. And also there’s a trend to grow more foliage because when you think about it, every flower arrangement has foliage of some sort. But don’t be put off growing annuals for cut flowers because they are a little bit more work. And I’ve got these four raised beds specifically for cut flowers and they’re working well. They’re very small, but they do grow an awful lot of flowers. And this bed here had all summer uh nigella and cornfl and we took them up a few weeks ago. They did really well. And I sewed annuals in this bed, hardy annuals for picking next summer. I’ve got ammy growing here. A scabius which doesn’t seem to have germinated yet. But also the nigella and corn flowers have dropped their seed and are growing very nicely indeed. So I’m going to leave those. However, there’s been germination of weeds. So it’s important to keep on top of them. So for example, there’s a thistle here in amongst the ammy. So we’ll remove that. I could get a hoe and a hoe between the rows, but then I would lose the odd nigella and the odd corn flour. And there’s no reason why I can’t have them all mixed up together. It seems to me that in an age that is becoming increasingly automated and digitized and artificial, the reality of getting on your hands and knees and with your fingers or maybe with a TR just gently picking out weeds one by one is both pleasurable and and helpful because you see the plants, you feel the soil, you smell it. That’s a cursory weed. And if you’re not sure what’s a weed and what’s a flower that you want for next spring, we’ll leave it. Strictly speaking, these are not cut flowers. These are wool flowers, which are bianuals. So, I used this as a seedbed, and I sewed these in April. Some of these are destined to accompany tulips in pots. So, I will leave them in the bed until I’ve planted up the tulips, which won’t be for another month. Some of them, however, I intend to plant out into the jaw garden, and I’m going to start that today. If you’ve grown bianials from seed or you’re buying any, late September, October is the perfect time to plant them out into their finished position. I want to take as much root as I can. I’m going to take its soil and all and split them up in situ, at least most of it. First, we’re going to Glimborn Opera House in East Sussex, where the costume department has discovered how useful the garden could be. [Music] You can create all kinds of natural dye colors from plants and flowers. Colors harnessed from nature have unrivaled depth. And not only that, natural dyes don’t harm the environment. My name’s Andrea and I’m growing plants that can be used either the the leaf or the flower or the root that can be used to create color for the costume department. I’m Jenny. I’m the diary room supervisor in the costume department. I dye, print, paint, and break down costumes for all the operas here. The first opera was held here in 1934, but the the die garden is a much much newer addition. What we’ve done over the last couple of years is to actually have all of the productive garden in one space. We’ve got vegetables and cut flowers and herbs and the die garden all growing within one fenced area. And I know where to find Andrea, and I need her now because she’s all in one place. [Music] I came up with the idea about doing the dye garden when I’d been on this course for a weekend about natural dying and we were taught about how the land and the plants are all involved in one cycle and I thought why can’t we do this here the first two plants that I’d planted out were mad and the das chamomile the kotaat tintori the das chamomile was doing beautifully there were so many flowers on it so that was really the first thing that we harvested that Jenny could try. We realized we were on to something. Here we’ve got the marolds which produce uh orangey shades of colors. And one of the reasons I love growing these is because they dead head really easily and you can just keep going deadheading them throughout the entire season and they keep flowering. They keep coming back and coming back and coming back. So if you just keep deadheading them and drying the plants, then by the end of the year, you’ve got quite a large amount of them. In this bed, we’ve got the weld, which is uh one of the sort of the three key dye plants. So you’ve got uh the W, the weld, and the matter, which produce blue, yellow, and red. And so this is the weld, which is the yellow producing one. It’s a bianual, so you have the leaves in the first year and then you’ll have the flower stalks in the second year. When they’ve got the flower on is the perfect time to to cut them for the the color. And they produce just such a beautiful vibrant yellow. It’s it’s absolutely amazing. So, what what I’ll be doing with these shortly is just cutting them down at the base, tying them up in bundles, and hanging them up to dry. Here we’ve got the Japanese indigo. So these you use the leaf to produce blue colors. You can get maybe two or three harvests if you cut them early enough. The Japanese indigo is pericaria tincturia and the tintori in the name is a really good clue that it’s a good dye plant. There’s a number of the plants have tintoriia or tintorum or you know something related to that which means you know it’s used for color. It’s used as a dye plant. [Music] So, one of the things that we’ve been working out is exactly how much of everything I’m growing and what works well in terms of harvesting as well. So, one year I grew a coropsis tincttoriia called mahogany which was beautiful. Just a mass of these really deep red flowers. And I think they produced quite a nice color, didn’t they? Yeah. Beautiful orange. But the flowers were tiny and I could easily spend all day just sitting there picking flowers and end up with maybe less than half a bucket. And I I said to Jenny, you know, this isn’t going to work. So part of what we’re trying to establish is what works well for both of us. We’ve often found it. We go to rehearsals for um the each opera and we often find each other in the garden while we’re having our picnics and Andrea will say which what what bits were natural dyed and I’ll say that t-shirt on the left you know that man on the left he was wearing and she’s like oh yeah I saw that and then those those blouses on the right we’re in in the dye room in the costume department and we’re using all the flowers that Andrea has brought to us from the garden. There’s all sorts of colors and they come out on different fabrics in different ranges. So, you get really really bright on some fabrics and not so bright on others. This is weld which is really bright yellow. And I also like the ders. They’re very orange. Different types of dia gives us different types of orange. A lot of the paler tones were used in Carmon for a dusty desert look, but for the wreckers there was a lot of yellows. This is where I dry all the plants. It’s actually a propagating unit that we use in spring for the seed sewing. And then once all that’s gone out, I can take over with the flowers that I’m harvesting through the summer. So, what I’m doing is laying them all out in trays. During the summer when it’s really hot, they can dry within a day or a couple of days, but at this time of year when there’s a bit less sun, it can take like over a week. The color from the D chamomile is a, as you’d expect from looking at the color of the flower, it’s a it’s a really good yellow. Hopefully hopefully Jenny will love it. So, I’m just putting some marolds to boil up a bit. Once I finish boiling up, I strain them all out and put them into another vat that’s clean and put my new fabric in to do the sampling. This is a piece of silk that will be simmered for about an hour, and then it will be washed out, left to dry. This is looking really good, but it’ll be even stronger by the time it’s finished. And it’s a lovely piece of silk, so it’ll be really glimmery and and shimmery when it’s finished. [Music] My hopes for the future for this are that it just grows and grows and we use the dyes more and more and more and I use my chemical dyes less and less and less and we be more environmental about it. I feel that what we’ve done is really exciting and actually I’m really proud of how far we’ve got. Maybe once, you know, eventually Jenny and I won’t work here anymore, but it will still be here. It will still be an established thing that’s just accepted about the way we do things. I think we’re just really lucky we met each other because I didn’t know that there were any gardeners that had any interest in natural dye when I came up with this thought. And I didn’t know that there was even a dye department. I just assumed that the costume costumes were brought in in the colors that they were meant to be. So, we’ve all learned something. I confess that my own experience of growing plants for dying and I did try and I grew the plants and we tried to make d ended not so much in failure but rather dribbled out but seeing it done properly fascinating. Now these are the wall flowers I’ve dug up so I want to plant them here into the jewel garden. These are not going to flower until next April at the earliest. So, none of this will be here. So, when you’re planning your planting out, put your head into the space of what the garden is going to look like next spring. Now, Fire King is, as the name suggests, wonderful sort of oranges and reds. These are growing in clumps. I could break them up into individual plants, but actually I quite like the idea of growing them in little clumps like that, and I think they’ll be perfectly good. Wall flowers are members of the brassacica family, so they’re related to cabbages and they are subject to the same problems. And if you can see on here, there’s real evidence of flea beetle. Where they puncture the leaf, you get scarring. It weakens a plant. It won’t destroy it. It’s not the end of the world. But if when you pick up wool flowers, you see little insects jumping about, those will be flea beetle. Bulbs in long grass in spring look fantastic and now is the perfect moment to plant them out. Except for tulips. Tulips could wait another month. But if you’ve got daffodils, crocus, kamasias, get them into grass now if you can. And there’s the rub because after the summer that we’ve had, even if it’s been raining for days, the ground is still like iron. And what it means here at Long Meadow is I just physically can’t plant them out and may not be able to for another month or two, by which time it’s getting a bit late. cuz by this time of year they want to start growing their roots and getting established. So the delay means you’re interrupting their growth and that will affect their flowering both in quality and quantity. So a solution is to pot some up. I’ve got a daffodil. This is narcissus poeticus recurvous or pheasant eye. It’s a quite delicate daffodil with white petals that are recurved. Hence the name recurvous. They’re bent back and its center is small and golden, hence the name pheasant sai. It’s fragrant and it flowers very late indeed for a daffodil. Sometimes as late as midmay. If you just use a normal compost, perhaps with a little bit of extra grit, only snow drops, fertilleries, and kamathas enjoy being wet. All other bulbs really need good drainage. So, put a bit of soil in. The rule of thumb with all bulbs is plant them twice their own depth. So, if I was going into the soil, they want to be that deep. And because it’s in a pot, it doesn’t have to be as deep as it does when you put it into the ground, but it still wants to be covered and buried in there like that and cover it up. And this is not a permanent home. This is a holding bay if you like, like a nursery bed for the plants. Occasionally, it’s as late as March before I can plant these. By which time they’ve got lots of foliage and may even be growing a flower stem. I will put these to one side. They certainly don’t need to take up greenhouse space. Water them. Make sure they don’t get absolutely soden, but make sure also they don’t dry out and you would expect to see the first shoots round about Christmas time. Now, if you’re a long married couple, have shared the same profession, retire within a year or two of each other with plenty of energy and time left, what do you do? You go down to the west country, of course, and make a garden. Our garden has the wizard walk, the two ponds that run into each other. We’ve got lots of hot borders, the trees of the tree angle. We’ve got the white garden, the terrace, lots of seating areas, and then the garden room. And then there’s the orchard and the bonsai. And don’t forget the chickens. [Music] I’m Carrie. I’m Neil. We know each other cuz we’re married, which I don’t know if you’re happy with that. For me, the garden is a creative playground, a chance to take the ideas that are in my head and put them in the ground. And for me, it’s about relaxation and about doing something without any constraint. I can do whatever I want as long as Kerry lets me. [Music] We were police officers and are now happily retired. We have been married coming up for 20 years. We moved here about 4 years ago and we decided uh children had all grown up, gone to university, we’d escape to Devon as quickly as we could. We did tell them eventually. So when we first saw this garden, it was a blank field and I could just see not not all of it, but I could just see how the banks could be made into, you know, really lovely flowering parts, how we could develop some of the areas. It it just felt like home. It straight away it just felt like home and I just wanted to garden here. [Music] It’s just under an acre of Devon grassland when we moved in with a few apple trees. Coming from a small garden to such a large garden, I couldn’t get it all in my brain in one go to do a vast area. So, we divided it up and did it in sections that we then joined together. It’s been a blank canvas for us and it’s been amazing to be able to just play and use our own ideas and not have to conform to anybody else’s garden. It’s been brilliant. So, we were both working in the police in Hampshire and we met when we were both working on a project together. I always wanted to be a police officer and and when I was going to the careers office and they were sort of saying go and be a teacher, go and do this, go and do that. I was like no, I want to be a police officer. I wanted to help. I wanted to be there for victims and and people who needed a bit more help. My reason for joining the police force really uh was monetary. Once I got the job, I I then I came to enjoy what I was doing with the community. We were both in the police for 30 years. We both did our full-time service. Um I retired a couple of years earlier than Neil. I got into gardening because of my parents. You know, mom and dad had a garden in Hampshire. They gardened it. They loved it. So, I was always out there helping them. And my mom still gardens today. In fact, a day out for my mom isn’t a good day unless she comes home with the plant. My grandfather really was the root of my gardening love and and he got me into produce gardening because he grew everything that we needed to eat. He passed that love on to to my mom and my dad. And then dad developed this love of bonsai and um he grew bonsai trees and I will probably for the rest of my life try and be as good as he was. You know, when you’re dealing with bonsai, it’s good to have the right equipment. Um you know, and a good pair of snippers for for light work. Um, but my father taught me one thing and that is why spend a fortune on tools when if you want to rake the soil or loosen the root, get an old fork from the kitchen or this is probably a new fork that you made old. And if you want to loosen around the edge of a pot, then cut the end off one of your dining knives uh and use that instead. Uh, if mom’s watching this, this is where they went to. And my role in the garden is just I’m a plantaholic. So I want to have things built in the garden that show off the plants. I want to put plants in. I want to divide them. I want to weed. I want to garden. That’s just if my hands are in the soil, I’m happy. I dig and I build and I try to implement the beautiful designs that Kerry comes up with. the translation between what she comes up with and what I have to try and build sometimes can get a little muddled or a little heated or a little heated, but we always eventually come out with something we’re both happy with. And I think that’s what makes us good gardeners in our own garden. So, the Wizard Walk came about because we wanted a a shady area and we also wanted an area down the side of the garden that kind of was a little bit dramatic and uh and we created it from from your thoughts. Yes. Didn’t we? And it’s called the Wizard Walk because the children came home and being of Harry Potter era, they both went that looks like Hogwarts Bridge. So, on the shadier side of the wizard walk, we’ve got hosters, we’ve got Brunner, and I’m starting to collect some other nice things, which is always a fun thing to do. On the sunnier side, we’ve got uh campsis growing up. We’ve got wisteria. They’re quite young, and the cacosmia gets everywhere, so there’s quite a lot of cucosmia in and around the area as well. So, this hosta has been really munched by the slugs and snails. So, it’s coming out. I’m going to try and get a brunner into the spot to fill the hole. So, it will look really rather nice here. So, we don’t use pellets or any other sort of control. If the slugs and snails are here eating, that’s fine because actually they’re going to feed our birds and our chickens and our frogs and our hedgehogs. Get the bark back around it and it’s good as new. You wouldn’t know something else had been there hopefully. [Music] With the garden in retirement, it’s allowed us to just be as creative as we want to be. Our working life was more about constraint, but it didn’t really match either of our creative abilities or desires. I think we’re quite excited about the white garden because it happened without us really knowing. It was a space. We were given some um paving actually by some friends um who were going to put it in the skip and it it was kind of we can make a circle out of that and we can make it quite formal but then soften it with planting. We’ve got some white pens. We’ve got some cosmos. The hees are looking quite sweet and quite pretty in there. Um there’s some white companula. There’s a little bit of rose still growing in there. The gladioli are in there. What we’ve discovered as we’ve been building the white garden is that it’s actually all green and you put in hints of white. If you go for too much white, it kind of dulls it. I think it sort of doesn’t make it as impactful. Whereas, if you go for lots of green and lots of texture and shades of green, that hint of white really pops. [Music] Every day I’m completely blown away by where we are. Uh, and I think back to our working lives and certainly, you know, where where I worked, you know, the thought that I would be sat in a beautiful Devon garden. Um, I would never have thought that in a million years and I’m grateful every day for it. It’s interesting that Kerry and Neil have realized what I’ve often said about a white garden is white gardens re are really green gardens with a little bit of white because it is extraordinary how white this bright color can deaden everything. Now the big greenhouse has served us really well this summer. We’ve had lots of tomatoes. We’ve had masses of cucumbers. a really good crop of peaches. Absolutely delicious. But that’s come to an end and with it there are a few problems. They’re not disastrous, but they are very clear. So if you take the peach here, you can see if you look at the leaves down the middle, you’ve got this pale area of speckling with white with touches of yellow and just a little bit of fluffiness. And that’s an indication of spidermite. Now, spidermite you’re going to find in hot, dry places, which in this country tends to be green houses. It’s not a total disaster. The thing to watch out for is that the mites themselves will look for places to overwinter. They love dark nooks and crannies. And actually, bamboo canes are ideal for them. So, one of the jobs I’m going to do this winter is untie all the bamboo canes and replace them with probably hazel rods. But in your own greenhouse, it’s a good idea to have a good tidy up at this time of year. Just get rid of those nooks and crannies which provide shelter over winter for the mites. However, that isn’t too bad. Have a look at the cucumbers. I have to say when I started to see this sort of modeled yellowing of the foliage, I thought it was a virus because cucumbers are very prone to viruses, particularly as they get older. However, this is just spidermite really ripping in. This is spidermite at home and tucking in. If I put my glasses on, I can see, and hopefully you can too. A kind of fluffy cobwebby setup. And the mites are in there. They’re absolutely tiny. Now, I’ve watered these every day. But it’s not so much the plant that’s too dry. It’s the atmosphere. It’s humidity that you need to get. Best way to do that in any greenhouse is water the floor so it’s damp. And that will raise the humidity levels. And the mite doesn’t like that. It looks terrible. However, it’s not a disaster. We’ve had lots of cucumbers. They’ve been delicious. It’s the end of the season. So, cut them down. And you can see that if I come up here, the cobweb webbing goes right up the string, too. And pull it out the ground. There we go. Now, what that does is let light and air into the pumpkins and squashes. But even they have got a slight problem too because if I lift this leaf, you will see that it has a very healthy population of whitefly. But what I’m going to do now with these is strip them right back, not take them out because I want to reveal the fruit that is there to as much light as possible. Over the next couple of weeks, they need to ripen and that needs sunlight. Flowers are no use to us at this time of year, even small fruit. The only thing we want to keep are squashes and pumpkins that are fully grown. What we’re after is ripening, not growth. Oh, I see. that’s grown in amongst the mechanism of the roof. I will work my way through this so that ideally I will just have the fruit exposed to glorious sunshine if we get any for the next couple of weeks. Now we’re going to North Yorkshire to join Adam, who has had a privileged view of a spectacular garden very rarely open to the public that has been created by one of our modern masters. I am so looking forward to what’s behind that door. It’s a garden that I’ve wanted to come to for a long time and I cannot believe I am here. Have I got a treat for you. [Music] And the first thing that stops you in your tracks is that view. But I’m telling you, there is so much more to see. I’m at Mount St. John, a private garden near Thursk. Designed 20 years ago by Tom Stewart Smith. It’s a place where big skies meet bold planting ideas. And today I’ve got the chance to have a little nosy round. At the heart of it all is head gardener Tim Marshall who’s guiding this remarkable landscape with a steady hand and a real passion for his craft. It’s incredible mate. Yeah. Things like the ups are looking great at the moment. Yeah. You got the striking kind of Achilles and Malveras and things like the Dianthis Carthusian I think are fantastic. How it kind of weaves. They are aren’t they? Yeah. But they either seem to work or not work. Yeah. Yeah. They need to be kind of within something where they can grow through. Yeah. I mean, this is some place slight weight on your shoulders. Not really. It’s good. I have high expectations of myself because I love it so much. Um, it’s uh Yeah, it feels natural. Tim, you look at the habaceous planting and most people would think that is a huge amount of work, but looking closer, you get the sense that so many of those plants would hold their form. Yeah. Generally, maintenance- wise, it’s quite straightforward. Making sure that if only we three at the start of the season and letting everything kind of just romp away, but we don’t do any real kind of support or tying in. Most of it gets left right through till end of January and then cut back. Any mulching or just leaving? Yeah, we produce a lot of our own mulch. It really kind of helps to keep moisture in and keep weeds down. You would never say normally that that a garden hits perfection, but this feels like it does. Yeah. As well as a workplace. It gives me a lot of inner peace, I suppose. Um in the mornings, I’ll walk in, you lovely start to the day. I don’t feel stressed in the slightest. It’s a lifestyle for me and a good lifestyle. [Music] This is absolutely breathtaking. Yeah, you’ve got that view. So, you’re thinking, well, why even bother creating a garden? Because that’s going to win every single day. But actually, when you start to look closer, how those trees work their way around that wider landscape. And the clever thing for me is how that’s bought into this space, which is done by these beach. They connect to the hedge but they sit against the sky. And then you’ve got the bucks sort of more like pillows. So slightly softer but really controlled. All of these plants, you know, things like the achilas, the areniums, all the grasses. They’ve all been chosen because they hold an incredible form. And then we suppose we better get to the bit that we all love, which is the color because it feels very comfortable. All these sort of pinks and purples sit well together, but then every now and then there’s a little pop of yellow that just provides a highlight. While the terrace garden is all about bold structure, texture, and those big seasonal moments, just over the hedge, it couldn’t be more different. Down in the valley is a cooler, damper, a more secluded space where moisture loving plants thrive amongst the trees. It’s a totally different vibe. And I’m meeting Jack Clark, another member of the team, who knows this part of the garden inside out. I mean, the ponds are really the heart of the planting and the valley garden. And they just attract so much life. Actually, when you get to this point, you sort of get a wonderful appreciation of the levels, don’t you? Cuz up the top there, I didn’t realize there was even that one. Yeah. We are kind of set on these three ponds that cascade into one another. And these were actually the original stock ponds for when it was uh a monastic settlement thousand years ago. Yeah. What a beautiful peaceful charming place to come to work. In contrast to the terrace garden, it’s a fairly dramatic planting, isn’t it? It is. Yeah. But it’s so peaceful at the same time. Jack, I’ve decided if you get to work here every day, you must be the most mellow person in the UK. Yeah, it’s quite an office, isn’t it? It is, isn’t it? How long you been involved? So, I’ve been here 7 years. I started in 2018 as a volunteer, actually, and I spent two years volunteering here. I spent a lot of time down here and was always kind of drawn to the Valley Garden. Yeah. And so, then 5 years ago, you were taking on full-time. Yeah. dream job honestly is and it still is. Um have to pinch myself sometimes when it comes to managing an area like this. What’s the problems down here? Does anything run away? Do you have any issues? Day to dayare it’s it’s kind of always on the brink of um chaos down here. Um ultimately it’s an ancient woodland and um you know we get all the indicative plants of that and you just you you’ve got to try and learn to have a balance between the two things. So ultimately you’re trying to balance the ornamentals with the more naturalist the more naturalistic planting. Yeah. And then you know once you’ve cut everything back it’s a completely different place down here. It’s just back to being a native woodland really. Yeah. going forward, what’s the sort of plan to evolve the garden? You know, is there any sort of direction or pretty much as it is with the summers the way that they’ve been? Yeah. This garden has been kind of designed a lot of things love damp ground, but we’ve had the last eight years we’ve had these incredibly dry, hot summers and it’s just sort of thinking about plant selection moving forwards. You know what would be better. This carries an atmosphere that is quite hard to describe. It’s an ancient valley, so you’ve got that history, but then the way it’s been modernized is incredible. And you got the big sort of woodland trees either side and then these cersei defilum japonicum which is the candy floss tree that peppers its way through and it feels like it links the bigger trees together. And then there’s layers of shrubs that bring those canopies down and then after that it feels a bit like the the other planting has come over the hill and it’s running down to the water. I’ve also concluded that I want Jack’s job. [Music] I think designing a garden is one thing. Creating it is another. But then to maintain it, move it forward takes craft, skill, enthusiasm, which Tim and his team have in spades. And that has made this a very special place. [Music] I really envy Adam that visit because it’s a garden that I’ve read about, I’ve seen pictures of, and seeing it like that, you realize it is absolutely superb. I’m collecting seeds here, sweet pea seeds, and there aren’t that many because there were very few sweet peas. The sweet peas this summer had a horrible time. What a sweet pea will always do is once it senses it’s getting hot and dry, it will rapidly go to seed. So if you collect the seed pods now, potentially these will give you wonderful sweet peas next year if the weather is kinder. Right, I’m just going to take a few more It’s been spattering with rain, so I’m going to let these dry. And when they’re bone dry, I will store them in a paper envelope. Important that you don’t store them in plastic because then they can get moldy. But I certainly intend to sew these sometime in the next month. So, I’m going to put those there cuz I’ve got other sweet peas that are ready to sew now. Now, the reason for sewing sweet peas at this time of year is to give them as much time as possible to become large plants. But I’m sewing them in these plugs. They’re very deep. And root trainers are good. I have often sewn sweet peas in pots. Doesn’t matter what you use as long as it’s got depth. So, I will fill them up. I have added sieved garden compost to my normal seed mix because sweet peas are hungry and thirsty plants and at every stage of their growth they really benefit from plenty of feed. Right, that is now ready. Now this is a variety called Janet Scott. This is a pale pink, perfect for the cottage garden. Lovely fragrance. Most of my life I’ve sewn sweet peas actually in spring to plant out in May, but increasingly I’m coming round to sewing them in autumn. I’m putting one seed per plug. In a plug this size, by next spring, I would expect to have a really good bushy plant. And the busher it is, the more side shoots it will have. And the more side shoots it has, the more flowers it will have. These now will go to a protected place to germinate. The greenhouse is good. If not, undercover somewhere. Then when they’ve developed a pair of leaves, round about the end of next month, they can be moved into a cold frame is ideal or even stand outside. But you do need to protect them from excess rain. They don’t want to sit soden. And you do need to check them for slugs and snails. And then they can be planted out as soon as possible. I used to feel it had to be after the last frost. Increasingly, I think round about the beginning of April is perfect. That’s a good job. Here are your jobs for the weekend. [Music] If you grow chili peppers, they’re starting to ripen and they look fantastic hanging on the plants, but it’s important to remove the ripe fruits so that they don’t inhibit the production and ripening of more chilies. Most lawns have a few bare patches by this stage of the season, and now is the time to rectify them. Remove any moss or thatch exposing bare soil and loosen that lightly. Sprinkle grass seed, not too thickly, and then water it in well, and keep it watered until you see the seeds have germinated and are growing. And that will blend in with the lawn and be ready to mow next spring. [Music] If you grow herbs like margarm, lemon balm or mint, they will have finished producing new leaves and their flowers will be setting seed. So now is the time to cut them back hard, taking all top growth down to the ground. This opens them to lighter air and they may produce new leaves this autumn, but certainly will be in a good position to do so when the weather warms up next year. [Music] I just felt another couple of drops of rain. It’s gone from sunny to rain and sometimes quite warm sun and very heavy rain all day long. But that’s great. It’s good to have some rain and I hope we have a lot more over the coming weeks because gosh, we need it. However, what will be will be and that’s it for today. Uh Francis will be with you next week and I’ll see you back here at Long Meadow very soon. Till then, bye-bye. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat up here. [Music]