Monty demonstrates how a radical chop of some border plants now can rejuvenate them for later in the season. He starts off with looking at the alliums which he pulls up as they need space. Next he moves onto the hardy geraniums which are still flowering which he also cuts back. He advises to cut back other early flowering perennials like oriental poppies, delphiniums which should get repeat flowering in August and September. Monty also creates space for new tender plants - zinnias and cosmos. He puts all the material he's taken out in a wheelbarrow and takes it to his compost heap. Carol Klein celebrates a cottage garden favourite, the foxglove, firstly at Glebe Cottage and then she visits a nursery - The Botanic Nursery in Atworth, Wiltshire which holds one of the national collections of foxgloves. Joe Swift has come to the Somerset countryside to a very unusual garden that belongs to Dan Pearson, who is one of the most pioneering garden designers alive today. He has designed countless gardens, namely a therapeutic garden in London for the Maggie Centre and a Millennium Forest in Japan designed to last 100 years.. His newest challenge is much closer to home, a garden of his own on a grand scale and although it's still very early days it gives us a great opportunity to understand his unique approach to garden design.
Monty is in the greenhouse to check on his tomato trial that he started a few months ago by using three different methods. The trial was to see which technique produced the best possible taste and quality fruit. The variety he planted was 'Gardener's Delight'. The results so far are as follows - ...
Monty lifts his wallflowers from the seed bed to plant them out to give them more room. Some are flowering which they shouldn't be but this is due to the very hot weather we have had this summer. Monty advises to cut them back if they are flowering. He plants them in the veg garden as they are me...
We're well into August and Monty is pleased to see that his hostas haven't even been nibbled. He believes that is down to him trying to grow healthy plants and give them the conditions that they will thrive in. This also has a lot to do with the balance of wildlife at Longmeadow, where there are ...
