Monty is in his orchard picking up apples that have fallen on to the ground and consequently are bruised, therefore impossible to store. Apples don't ripen all at once on a tree, but when ripe fruit starts to fall it's a sure sign that the process has begun. Monty advises to check regularly and to pick the fruit whilst it is ripe but still hanging on the branches, before they all fall and get damaged. He's decided as well as eating them, he will also make juice out of the riped ones. He has hired an apple press from a community orchard which is good to crunch the apples and then compress them. He tastes it and finds it tart and nice but refreshing. Carol Klein is out and about gathering a wild blackberry harvest from the hedgerows and discovering a surprising number of more domesticated brambles that we can grow in our gardens. She meets Barry Clarke who has a garden in Houghton, Hampshire which has two hundred different varieties of rubus.
The meadow that Monty sowed on the mound has had a mass of growth. Included in what he sowed are quite a few weeds that have been promoted into growth by the groundwork, and an awful lot of annual flowers which are nurse plants. They're actually providing a cover while the perennials which are mu...
As we slide into autumn, the hot garden is still looking really good but it is the miscanthus flowers that has really caught Monty's eye. These grasses show that they have flowers that hold their own with anything else around them. Carol Klein also visited RHS Rosemoor to get seasonal inspiration...
Monty is in his orchard harvesting his apples in readiness to store them. Monty treats the apple harvest as a process. This is due to the apples ripening over a period of about a month. The ones that get the most sun come first and then the last ones will follow four or five weeks later, so he te...
