Episode 7 – Friday 18th April 2014

Its the Easter episode and Monty has time to stand and talk to us with mug in hand and his trusty companion Nigel the dog. We get the impression that his garden preparations are well in hand. Shame we can’t all feel that way yet ! More and more flowers are emerging in Longmeadow and April has been a fantastic growing month.

Carol Klein is working alongside the young family from Gloucestershire, Dan and Dominique, to select trees and shrubs. These will give the garden a structure.

Joe Swift visits Stonehill Quarry Garden in Staffordshire which was devestated by the storms, and the owner, Caroline Raymont is well behind this year with all her plans for opening up the garden at Easter. Jo lends a hand to help her catchup. The quarry garden has very shallow soil depth as it is planted on rock  but there is  plenty of readily available leaf compost from the winter to build up raised beds alongside the path. Fallen trees are being used as markers for the borders.

Jobs to get on with this week for allotmenteers and gardeners

• On an east facing wall which can be cold and shady Monty advises us that a Morello cherry tree is ideal. The cherries are ideal for cooking with as they are sour.  Plant away from the wall to avoid the stony footings. He chooses a fan trained morello tree and chooses to plant it in free draining soil.  Maximum growth on a fruit tree is vertical but maximum fruit is horizontal. That is why many fruit trees are fan trained.
• Time to construct wigwams for climbing beans which can be planted in around a month or so.
• Monty plants some Blauhilde Climbing French beans in pots. In 4 weeks they should be developed enough to be planted outside after the last chances of frost.

Here’s the link on BBC iPlayer if you have time to watch the Gardeners World episode 7 >>