(Repack)
Complete season 3 of the Scottish gardening show.
Ep1 07-04-10
The Beechgrove Garden has been under snow since mid-December and only just emerged a couple of weeks ago. In this first programme of the new series Jim, Carole and Lesley find out exactly how the weather has affected Beechgrove, but also what has happened in neighbouring gardens in and around the North East.
Originally posted 92/02/2012
Ep2 14-04-10
Last year the orchard was devastated by waterlogging and then snow damage. Head gardener Don and his team have revamped and replanted the orchard, while Jim and Don put the a net over the fruit cage to protect the crop.
Ep3 21-04-10
In the Beechgrove Garden, plastic pots are to gardeners what plastic bags are to shoppers. Carole and Lesley take a look at ‘alternative pots’ and what else we can do with our plastic pot mountain. Over the next ten years peat-based composts are due to be phased out so Jim tries new products in the world of peat-free composts. And Lesley is in the Cutting Garden, which Don and Wendy have redesigned during their garden snow days.
Ep4 28-04-10
Jim is planting tatties in a traditional manner this year, but using both unconventional and new varieties. He also plants a range of 'heritage potatoes' that have been lost to most of our gardens for years, and also tries out a range of what's claimed to be blight-resistant varieties. Also, as most people's lawns suffer after winter so Jim begins a well-needed process of lawn rescue.
Ep5 05-05-10
In the Beechgrove Garden it’s finally warming up and that’s good news, mostly, but what it also means that the garden pests are on the prowl. Jim tests out what claims to be a catch-all new biological control that will hit a huge range of garden pests (without chemicals) that might otherwise destroy all the hard work in the veggie plot. We don’t have the dreaded club root in Beechgrove, but many people (and their brassicas) suffer badly with it. One of those is our own George, and the poor man has it in both his garden and his allotment. Carole visits George in both to try out a few methods of control, and we follow him through the season to see what works and what doesn’t.
Ep6 14-05-10
In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is in the fruit house tending to the vines, planning for the bunches of grapes to come. He also takes a look at the fig which he hard pruned in the autumn – has it made it through the winter? Lesley is filling up the trials area with wigwams…well, she’s making the garden team paint each bamboo cane of the wigwams (that support the plants) to match all the colours of her sweet pea trials. Lesley is trialling a range of sweet peas that claim to be especially fragrant.
Ep7 19-05-10
Jim and Lesley are sowing those extraordinary plants that flower from seed to transform a brown patch into an all colours of the rainbow patch in just a few short weeks. The amazing, quick and easy and fun to grow, hardy annuals. Carole and Lesley also start their now annual task to fill up the wee decking garden with fruit and veg, proving that you can have a feast from your garden in a very tiny space. They also start their annual competition of who can grow the most tatties in containers.
Ep8 26-05-10
Carole has her thigh waders on and is up to her middle in our big puddle of a pond at Beechgrove. She discovers a new way of draining the pond and attacks the blanketweed, George takes a look at the family orchard and Jim is out and about this week with a visit to Mull, visiting a couple who have a garden with very shallow soil on bedrock and want to know what they can plant for ground cover.
Ep9 04-06-10
Gardening Scotland 2010 bursts into bloom at the Royal Highland Showground, Ingliston, just outside Edinburgh. With over 150 stands in the floral hall, the cream of British growers will be there including those showing off their gold medals straight from Chelsea. Beechgrove, as ever, concentrates on the Scottish talent and plants, and we join the crew for a sneak preview as well as sampling the atmosphere of the show itself.
Ep10 09-06-10
In the Beechgrove Garden there are pumpkins, squashes and water melons. Jim, Carole, and Lesley are looking forward and tending to some of the really big late season produce, and Jim is on the lovely island of Mull again – visiting the statuesque gardens that surround Torosay Castle.
Ep11 18-06-10
In the fruit house at the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is taste testing the first of our large and luscious cherries, and he also tends to the vines. Carole has two new types of runner bean to compare, growing both in borders and in large tubs.
Ep12 08-07-10
Jim is in the greenhouse assessing how his range of grafted vegetables, including tomatoes, sweet peppers and aubergines, is doing. Lesley revisits her Year in Containers set up in her Tuscan garden. This time the containers are full of summer colour, and amongst other plants are the world’s first scented begonia and fuchsia explosion – so-called because it will literally explode into bloom. Plus there is a look at the first ever pint-sized patio buddleja.
Ep13 14-07-10
Carole is joined by Deborah Long of Plantlife Scotland to highlight a campaign called Pond Alert. Some aquatic plants available to buy are not native and can be highly invasive, causing huge problems for the environment. Fortunately there are lots of native plants that are suitable for the garden pond. Deborah advises which plants to use and which to avoid.
Ep14 21-07-10
The Secret Garden celebrates the International Year of Biodiversity and is an example to everyone who would like to increase local biodiversity, giving an insight into exploring nature right on residents’ doorsteps. It is a stunning addition to the town of Girvan: something to shout about rather than to keep a secret.
Ep15 28-07-10
The team look at how the more exotic crops – the melons, pumpkins, honeyberries and blueberries – are coming on, safe in their polytunnels. Jim and George give a masterclass in the art of fruit and rose budding, while Carole shows how to propagate Streptocarpus and Begonia rex.
Ep16 04-08-10
Jim is back in the vegetable plot harvesting and, of course, sampling some of the wonderful vegetables that have grown despite the difficult early season conditions. In the Secret Garden, George Anderson is introducing some plants to push the boundaries of hardiness in an attempt to monitor climate change. Andrew Johnson, a stained glass sculptor from Edinburgh, has created the most beautiful stained glass piece for the centre of this wee garden.
Ep17 11-08-10
Bedding plants can give gardens instant seasonal colour, and this week Jim, Carole and Lesley assess how Beechgrove’s have been faring over the summer. One of the loveliest of summer flowers is the sweet pea. Lesley takes a look and a deep breath at her sweet pea trials. She chose to trial some of the most fragrant sweet peas she could find – and they look lovely and smell even better.
Ep18 18-08-10
The team are in the Morningside area of Edinburgh where numerous community groups and individuals have joined forces to create a pioneering community garden in a forgotten space on the grounds of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. The Royal Edinburgh Community Garden has united a vast network of people, who have all been working together to rejuvenate acres of the 15 acre site, which was once a market garden for the hospital.
Ep19 27-08-10
It’s all about propagation in this week’s Beechgrove Garden. Carole has been trialling half-hardy perennials such as osteospermums and penstemons which have been giving us colour all over the summer. Now Jim, Carole and Lesley show us how to take cuttings of these to overwinter for next year.
Ep20 01-09-10
Just like so many gardens across Scotland, the lawn in the Beechgrove Garden has suffered from the summer conditions. Jim McColl makes a few boreholes to analyse the symptoms and then prescribes some autumn remedies for sick lawns. All is not rosy in John Hedger and Glen Harman’s garden in Dores near Inverness. They would love a rose bed in their garden and to that end they dug it two years ago, manured it and planted it. Sadly, all that is left is one leafless twig; all the other roses have died and they want to know why, as well as how to take remedial action. Carole Baxter comes to the rescue.
Ep21 08-09-10
We are thinking ahead to winter – winter veg, that is. Jim is sowing a range of winter lovelies with an oriental twist in our deep bed plot – winter greens for warming stir fries or chilly salads. In the meantime, Lesley sows in similar containers, some of which are small enough for the windowsill, to show how we can all continue to be productive all year round even in the smallest of spaces. Lesley also replaces the Equinox Garden fence that was lost last winter. She demonstrates the range of screening materials that are available, from reed to canes, heather to willow and even ferns.
Ep22 15-09-10
In the Beechgrove Garden this week it’s a tale of beans and bulbs. Carole takes a look at her runner bean trial, comparing yield and of the course taste of the beautiful beans. The added bean benefit is that they look lovely too with their delicate flowers. Meanwhile Carole and Lesley come up with some recipes for layering bulbs in containers that will provide a spring show in your garden for weeks as one set of bulbs takes over from the next.
Ep23 22-09-10
The whole Beechgrove team is out and about for the last in the series of community garden specials. The programme focuses on a community garden for the new Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies at Easter Bush, near Roslin, Midlothian. This is a garden for staff, students, clients and all the four-legged friends and patients of the Dick Vet school.
Ep24 29-09-10
The gardening season is coming to an end in this penultimate episode, but at the Beechgrove Garden there is still a bumper harvest. Jim compares the performance and yield of standard tatties with the newer, blight-resistant varieties, and for their final time this year he is in amongst the compost, giving the heaps a turn over.
Ep25 03-10-10
The Beechgrove team are starting to put the garden to bed for the winter.
Jim, Carole and Lesley demonstrate how to lift, pot up and store half-hardy perennials like osteospermums and stalwarts like begonias and dahlias. Tender plants, like Carole’s tree fern, will be well wrapped up to protect them against the winter frosts. Greenhouses will be thoroughly cleaned and sterilised in preparation for next year’s growing season. Lesley is thinking forward to next spring and plants many different varieties of tulip to give lots of colour in the cutting garden.
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