Hi, Sweetpea.

 Hi, Mummy Bear.

 How are you?

 I’m all right.

 Getting my ducks in a row at the moment.

 It’s all the back-to-school stuff.

 Oh, right.

 Yeah.

 So I’ve got…

 Highlighters, pencil sharpeners.

 Protractors.

 Stickers.

 Compass.

 No.

 I mainly just need to get books and then I do need to get highlighters.

 I need the Rainbow Zebra palette.

 Okay.

 They’re very good ones.

 Mm-hmm.

 So I’ll be getting those.

 And then, otherwise, I just need to get my bus card, tram card, all that kind of stuff

 ready.

 Mm-hmm.

 Being in a city.

 Mm-hmm.

 And then just generally figuring out, sorting my stuff out.

 Sorting your life out.

 Sorting my life out.

 Yeah.

 There’s a lot to do.

 Especially since my work finishes the day before I have to go back to uni.

 Oh, this is the worry that you finish at midnight on the Sunday and then you’re

 in at 10 o’clock on the Monday.

 I have to be at…

 Yeah, 10 o’clock, but I’m obviously going to want to be there at like 9.30 at least.

 Yeah.

 Because I don’t know part of the campus because it’s a new section I’m going to

 be in this year.

 It’s very scary.

 But what’s really, really nice is that on this kind of forum page, it’s a bit

 like a miniature Facebook page, but specifically for students of the uni.

 And you can write posts about stuff, asking questions, and then loads of people

 help.

 And I’ve just found it the most helpful page.

 Everyone’s so lovely.

 Everyone just looks out for each other.

 Really supportive.

 Really supportive.

 And so I’ve used it quite a lot throughout the year, questions about

 certain topics or whatever.

 And then I wrote saying how I’m going into next year.

 I didn’t know anyone who was going to be doing this specific part of the

 course.

 And then this lovely girl did a direct message to me because you can do a

 direct message.

 And she explained about how her previous year went.

 She said how she had the worst first semester.

 She was so depressed.

 And she said how she saw her friends as well who were doing so well

 because they’re real intellects.

 They’re completely, they were just smashing through it.

 And she was finding it so hard to keep up with them.

 But she said how she was trying really hard to work.

 She said how she was always had super high marks in school last year of kind

 of high school.

 And she said how it was just the most awful thing.

 She said how she was so out of her confidence.

 It really knocks your confidence, doesn’t it?

 It does. She said how second semester, like with me, went better.

 She had her method.

 She knew what she was doing a bit more.

 But she said how it was truly a very difficult first year for her.

 Very tough time.

 Yeah. And she’s wanting to go into dentistry as well, which is really,

 great. So doing exactly the same as you.

 Exactly. She’s doing the same biology as well.

 Yeah. So we’re both in microbiology.

 So in biology, it’s quite cool.

 We have three different things.

 You have microbiology.

 You can specialise in cell biology or kind of physiology,

 animal biology, plant biology.

 So you’re kind of going through three different sizes.

 You’ve got macroscopic, microscopic and then going almost nano size.

 If you see what I mean, kind of when you look at it like that.

 So I went for microbiology.

 She’s also doing microbiology.

 Great. There is unfortunately a lot of organic chemistry in that,

 but I’m going to get through it.

 It’s all right.

 Just ask lots of questions.

 Oh, yeah, I’m going to do my usual frown, not understand.

 The teacher will see the frown.

 The teacher will understand.

 I did not understand it.

 Anyway, so I’m just happy to have someone I know who,

 yeah, she sounds like she’s a real hard worker.

 She said how she really tried so hard to do it,

 even though she was in such a depressed state.

 Oh, gosh, I hate hearing about you kids feeling so down.

 And also, you were so isolated.

 It’s dangerous.

 It’s dangerous to be in that position.

 But you’re through that.

 This is going to be very different.

 Very it’s a it’s much more like high school.

 You have small class, small classrooms.

 It’s less just kind of big lectures.

 Yeah, get a lot more time to take on board the different topics,

 the subjects.

 Yeah, there’s generally a lot more time.

 The only thing is that it’s only the first semester that counts

 for the kind of end of year ranking.

 Right. So second semester,

 which means that all I have to do is work really blooming hard.

 It’s finite, isn’t it?

 September till December.

 I’ve got my end of first semester exams, end of December

 and some in January.

 But then after that, it’s really chill.

 All you have to get is 50 percent for the second semester.

 Yeah. And you’re through.

 So you just have to.

 That’s the only thing is it’s quite stressful the first semester

 because you’re like you’ve only got one that counts.

 Yeah. But at least then it’s only one.

 Yeah. So you’ve got silver linings.

 Anyways, your problem is you take a while to get back

 into the school term after you’ve been off.

 I do. So you need to hit the ground running, don’t you?

 That’s the only semester that’s counting.

 Yeah. But the thing that has been said is that it goes nice

 and chill to start off with.

 Eases you in. It eases in.

 Eases you in.

 It’s not just whang, bam, wallop.

 You’re into things.

 It’s like, hello, some organic chemistry, some statistics.

 Whoo. That sounds lovely.

 Yeah, I know.

 So anyways, I’m really looking forward to that.

 And what would be so awesome is if we both get into dentistry

 and then we’re just like chill.

 Well, into dentistry.

 Because once you’re in dentistry, don’t have to worry.

 It’s a whole different ball game at that point.

 You haven’t got exams, you haven’t got rankings.

 You’re just chill. You get through your year, you pass.

 Well, it’s good.

 So you know what you’re working towards.

 You know that it’s just an absolute go for it

 for a brief period of time.

 Exactly.

 Then you’re through.

 Yep. All sorted.

 Great. And I’m glad you found a little,

 she might not be little, a medium-sized comrade.

 A medium-sized comrade, exactly.

 So that’s been me.

 Have you heard anything on your front

 about the Boaty McBoatface dude?

 Who’s Boaty McBoatface?

 It’s the one who’s suing you.

 Oh, you can’t just throw nicknames at me like that.

 I’ve never, how is he ever Boaty McBoatface?

 Boaty McBoatface.

 Suey McSueface.

 Suey McSueface, yeah.

 I mean, I won’t go on about it too much.

 And probably I shouldn’t talk about it too much

 since I’m about to go to court.

 But he has sent a very abrupt reactive letter before action.

 So I’ve been spending some time considering that

 and putting together my very calm, considered response.

 Taking the high ground, being the mature one.

 I hate having to be the mature one.

 It’s so annoying that I have to take the high ground.

 I just want to respond in an inflammatory way,

 like the same inflammatory way that he’s talking to me

 or writing to me.

 But no, I have to take the high ground, don’t I?

 So that’s what I’ve been spending a couple of weeks doing,

 taking that high ground.

 He writes quite a lot of reviews on different places.

 He does, yes.

 So that’s been interesting is seeing,

 I mean, he’s given one star reviews for McDonald’s,

 one star review for Burger King.

 And a long comment as well underneath.

 Long comment.

 He was just the other day on holiday in Corfu.

 The reason I know that is because he wrote

 a one star review for a restaurant in Corfu.

 I also know that he likes well-tailored suits

 because he’s written a five star review.

 Well, a one star review for one tailor

 and then a five star review for another one.

 Plus added a photo of himself wearing said suit

 on Google reviews.

 So he’s an interesting character.

 Sue McSue face, I think is probably a better term.

 Yeah, Sue McSue face.

 He has all over the internet suing people.

 So that’s fun, isn’t it?

 It’s always me who comes across these characters.

 We were wondering earlier,

 is it possible to get through life

 without having to come across these types of people?

 Yeah, I feel like some people do.

 I’ve always come across them.

 Anyway, let’s not talk about that too much.

 But in terms of in the garden,

 I have for the first time ever tried

 on recommendation from Gardeners’ World,

 tried eating one of those orange cosmos.

 I put it in a salad with all produce from our garden.

 So we have red beans, purple beans.

 We had rainbow chard in it, lettuce,

 tomatoes, the purple basil.

 What else did we have?

 Courgette, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful potatoes

 from our garden.

 Yeah, potatoes.

 And then some orange petals on top.

 So my review on orange cosmos or Cosmos sulphureus,

 it tastes of absolutely nothing.

 It tastes like a petal.

 Yeah.

 But it looks absolutely beautiful.

 Looks really beautiful.

 Exactly.

 Now I have a listener message,

 which I thought I’d share with you.

 See.

 This is a really fantastic message.

 And if this encourages others to get back to us

 with constructive criticism,

 then please do so because we just eat up

 any constructive criticism.

 We love constructive criticism.

 We’re always trying to improve.

 So this one comes from somebody called Gil.

 G-I-L, Gil, or I guess it’s Gil.

 I think it’s Gil.

 And he wrote, hi, Sweetpea and Mummy Bear.

 I’m an avid listener, amateur gardener

 and a professional music producer.

 And then a smiley face that’s kind of melting.

 Oh, that’s cool.

 I just wanted to share with you

 that I believe the overall volume of your podcast

 might be slightly on the quieter side.

 I would kindly suggest adding a limiter

 to your voiceover master chain and crank it up a bit.

 I’m sure there is a loudness standard to these things,

 but I’m not fully knowledgeable in podcasts,

 engineering, sending my adoration and love.

 So I showed this to Sweetpea.

 Sweetpea got straight on it,

 twiddled a load of knobs in the software

 that I’m using.

 Bish bash bosh has increased volume.

 And I hasten to add it wasn’t a case

 of just turning a volume knob up.

 No, it was, that’s not how it works, people.

 We found a limiter.

 It was a plugin, put the limiter on.

 And then I cranked some, I can’t remember

 if it was the gain or the output level.

 You crank it up to, I think it was gain.

 I put up to six and the output level up to plus one.

 Yeah, that’s as far as that one could go.

 That’s as far as that one could go.

 Anyways, it sounded all right like that.

 And then you just kind of check the sound waves

 as you go along.

 That’s the really big peaks where you laugh out loud

 or whatever, aren’t distorted.

 Well, I mean, here we are at 200 episodes in

 and we finally have a podcast that people can hear.

 Oh, that’s nice.

 So thank you so much, Gil.

 And apologies that it’s been so tough to hear.

 It has always been on the quiet side,

 but you’re gonna hear us loud and clear

 from this point on.

 But all joking aside, any useful stuff like that

 is really helpful and we do take it on board.

 So just like if we make any mistakes

 on plant front, please tell me.

 Yes, just tell us.

 Every day is a school day, isn’t it?

 Exactly.

 Right, some show news, sweetie.

 I thought you might be interested to know about.

 Apparently, there’s going to be a new RHS show next year.

 Another one.

 And it is in

 Brizzle.

 Brizzle.

 So they’re in Brizzle.

 Oh my gosh.

 Which is where our lovely Alina Hibbert is from.

 Yes.

 Or certainly where she is now.

 Could blame me.

 It’s in Brizzle.

 I don’t know if that’s the right accent.

 I don’t know either.

 I’m so bad.

 That’s where ours is.

 I’m shocking with accents.

 Anyway, Bristol.

 So that’s great.

 It’s in the Bristol’s Prospect Building

 and the blurb that goes along with it

 where indoor space is in an outdoor courtyard

 will see a full-scale botanical takeover.

 So that’ll be running from the 8th

 to the 11th of July next year.

 They’ve got so many RHS show gardens now.

 Well, and on that,

 they’ve also brought back RHS Tatton Park.

 That’s coming back next year.

 Holy moly.

 That’s had a hiatus of three years.

 That’ll be the 21st to the 25th of July.

 Gosh, they’re going for it.

 Then another little piece of news on a different topic.

 We have three competition winners.

 We do.

 To our competition.

 Fantastic.

 That we set last week.

 And this was of course for Southport Flower Show.

 Yeah.

 We had the raffle machine.

 Did we?

 Tombola type.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Well, congratulations go out to Cynthia, Claire,

 and Samantha, who’ve each won a pair of tickets

 worth 64 pounds.

 I think I said 65 last week.

 It’s £64.

 That’s practically the same.

 To the Southport Flower Show.

 And so congratulations to you guys,

 but also a big thank you to Lisa,

 who’s in the Southport Flower Show team.

 Yes.

 Who made all of this possible.

 She’s been absolutely brilliant,

 incredibly generous to provide those tickets.

 Yeah.

 And also is one thing providing those,

 but also for her making the whole process

 so smooth and easy.

 You know, there’s been no hassle, no need to chase.

 The tickets came immediately.

 Those e-tickets have immediately gone

 to Cynthia, Claire, and Samantha.

 So a big thank you to you, Lisa.

 We really appreciate it.

 And it just leaves a really nice taste in the mouth

 for Southport Flower Show.

 It really does.

 I mean, between you and me, Sweetpea,

 not all the shows are like that.

 So it really does get noted when they are.

 Yeah.

 Very impressive.

 We’ve had some interesting other ones.

 Indeed.

 And finally, before we get into this episode

 of Gardeners’ World, I thought you might like to hear

 another top tip from.

 Toby.

 Yep.

 Yes, top tip Toby.

 Top Tip Toby.

 Fantastic.

 He was doing an advert for,

 I can’t remember which power tool it was now,

 but anyway.

 Hedge trimmers.

 Well, yeah, it was actually for hedge trimmers.

 Oh, are you serious?

 That was a complete guess.

 It was for hedge trimmers,

 but I can’t remember which make, but anyway.

 Stihl.

 Could be, don’t know.

 But basically what he’s saying is use your hedge trimmers

 to cut your meadows, to cut your grass.

 Well, that’s interesting.

 Because he said, what it does,

 it leaves the stems long rather than a strimmer,

 which chops several times, multiple times,

 as the wire or whatever or blade swivels around.

 Yeah, depends on what you have.

 With a hedge trimmer, you’re just getting a slice

 through, which is more akin to scything.

 And therefore you disturb the wildlife

 as little as possible.

 Well, now that is an interesting prospect.

 Does it not get all kind of,

 not kind of stuffed up in the-

 The blades.

 In the blade.

 No, I don’t think it should do.

 Certainly when Toby did his little demo, it wasn’t.

 And I can see how it would be absolutely fine.

 I appreciate that our meadows are very long,

 but I am going to give that a go.

 You just sort of tilt the angle of the blades.

 Okay, that’s cool.

 So that you can do it standing up

 and tilt them up a bit.

 Nice.

 Brilliant idea, top tip.

 I love that.

 That’s a great top tip.

 Will you be trying that then?

 Oh yeah, for sure.

 Absolutely.

 Because I’ve wondered how I’m going to tackle those meadows.

 Yeah.

 Because a strimmer does just sort of flail it

 around the place.

 It does.

 It looks a wreck afterwards.

 Yeah, it doesn’t look good.

 No.

 And I think also with this,

 because don’t you with meadows,

 you don’t want to leave the grass.

 So if you’re cutting it, the cut grass,

 if you’re cutting it and you’re just slicing

 through in one place,

 it’s easier to bundle up all the grass and remove it,

 isn’t it?

 Whereas if it’s just been strimmed and strimmed

 to tiny little bits, that’s hard to get rid of.

 Okay, I see what you mean.

 I can’t remember if you are meant to leave it or not.

 I think I remember from Eleanor from the copper house

 garden that you want to get rid of it.

 Otherwise you put too many nutrients back in

 and you want your wild flowers,

 certainly your perennial wild flowers

 to have limited nutrient in the soil.

 That’s such a good point.

 Yeah.

 It is.

 Right, let’s have a look at this episode then.

 I think we should.

 This is Gardeners’ World 2026, episode 22 recap.

 Off we go.

 We’re back with Monty at Longmeadow as per usual.

 He’s showing off some amazing sweet peas that he has,

 which are still flowering,

 because even though it’s been really hot

 and sweet peas hate drought, they hate heat,

 just generally all that stuff.

 They hate life, it’s too stressful.

 But he has been watering them vigorously.

 Every other day.

 Every other day to keep them flowering,

 which is a lot to have to do for sweet peas,

 but for him, sweet peas are a staple of the garden.

 They mean a lot, don’t they?

 They were beautiful sweet peas.

 They were really vibrant, weren’t they?

 Yeah, they’re gorgeous ones.

 I am sad that ours didn’t survive,

 but we weren’t going to-

 We can’t be watering like that.

 And then he goes to the jewel garden.

 He’s showing off the pots.

 They have the gingers, the dahlias and the cosmos in,

 but he says, once again, those are not sustainable.

 Not so clever now.

 Not so clever.

 They can be as big a pot as you want,

 but they’re not going to be sustainable

 with this huge whopping drought.

 It’s a shame, because they are beautiful.

 They’re magnificent pots.

 I’ve always loved his pots

 and those rich exuberant colours, but-

 Yeah, they look quite incredible, don’t they?

 I also appreciate that the Gardeners World team

 are now seriously looking at more drought resistant gardens

 and with your containers.

 I mean, you’ve got your work cut out, haven’t you?

 But you really need to look at the

 sort of better plants to put in.

 Yeah, absolutely.

 So he’s going to be thinking about new plants.

 I wonder if he’ll be going down possibly some aeoniums and-

 Well, Artemisia is one, isn’t it?

 Artemisia.

 Yes, the Powis Castle.

 And that is mainly for its foliage.

 Lovely silvery kind of coral feathery foliage.

 Can have some rather pretty flowers,

 but it’s mainly the foliage

 and it’s really easy to take from cutting.

 So he takes a whole lot of those,

 polythene bag, then takes them over to the potting shed.

 He has a super gritty compost,

 the usual thing of strip off as many leaves,

 possibly cut some of the tops of some,

 cut below a node, whack it into the side,

 preferably the corner of the pot,

 and then little sticks in just to keep the polythene bag

 that he’ll put over, which is nice and upright.

 And he misted it as well, didn’t he?

 And he missed it, yeah.

 And Artemisia is a Mediterranean herb.

 It is.

 I didn’t know that.

 I kind of knew that.

 I knew it was a great plant.

 He said, you can also do this

 with Lavender, Rosemary and Santalina.

 Yeah, all those med herbs.

 And those are very med herbs.

 Well, next it’s Adam Frost,

 and he was in Norfolk last August at Holme Hale Hall.

 That’s quite a tongue twister.

 It is.

 In the Walled garden specifically

 with Chris Marchand, the head gardener.

 He’s been head gardener there for nine years.

 Beautiful old brick wall, absolutely stunning.

 And Chris shows the dune borders,

 which have some copper beech, topiary,

 there’s burgundy cherry plums and the cotinus.

 Yep, and they also look at that.

 Did you see the Kniphofia Toffee Nosed?

 That was pretty, wasn’t it?

 That was absolutely gorgeous.

 Sort of a creamy colour, wasn’t it?

 None of the brash colours of ours.

 Yeah, it was creamy peach.

 I thought, oh, I need to have that.

 Absolutely love it.

 Oh, suits you, sir.

 Oh, why thank you, sir.

 Suits you, sir.

 Do you know that?

 That’s Paul Whitehouse.

 That’s it?

 From the fast show, I think it was.

 Oh, suits you, sir.

 Suits you.

 I really love Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer

 when they have their fishing show.

 I love them.

 They’re gorgeous, aren’t they?

 They’re just gorgeous.

 That’s a half hour of happiness.

 That is.

 We can really recommend watching that,

 especially in, that’s more a sort of

 autumn-winter vibe though.

 It is.

 You just want to chill by a fire.

 Yeah.

 Anyway, we’re going really off, off course.

 If you have a mix of Bob Mortimer and Whitehouse

 with Gardeners’ World,

 you’re going to be chilled as a cucumber.

 Oh my goodness.

 Anyway, come on, we’re all pieced, let’s go.

 Artemisia was another plant in there.

 Loving those.

 Then there’s some quite nice neat box hedging

 that surrounds some of the borders,

 just to add that bit of kind of formalness

 to an otherwise fairly informal garden.

 A hornbeam, Devil’s Bit scabious as well.

 In there.

 And you walked through the hornbeam hedge, didn’t you?

 Yes.

 Which took you into the late summer garden.

 Which was like fireworks.

 And that was full of purples and maroons

 and pinks and greens mostly.

 There was a very clear colour palette there.

 Yeah, that had the Devil’s Bit scabious in it.

 That’s it, yeah.

 Then there was a formal part with a lawn

 and some more box edging again.

 Very calm, it kind of went from fireworks

 where it was like, poof, poof, poof, to ah.

 There was a quince that was getting

 to the end of its life.

 Very old.

 So Chris has another one that’s in the ground

 so that’ll take over when that sad time comes.

 And also lots of dahlias and rudbekias.

 Yeah, yellows and oranges more around here.

 Much coming into their own.

 A beautiful garden.

 I thought it was gorgeous.

 Nice views from above.

 Yeah.

 It really gave you a good idea of the layout of it.

 Love the arches.

 Those arches with the fruit trees up.

 Yeah, they were great.

 That was really nice.

 I liked how that separated two areas

 but linked them together at the same time.

 Yeah, I really loved the garden.

 I don’t think it was mentioned

 but it’s actually a garden

 that’s been designed by Arnie Maynard.

 Oh.

 He did that back in 2000

 and then replanted it in 2016.

 Oh, how interesting.

 According to the owner, Delia Broke.

 Oh, yeah.

 Arnie turned up to their first meeting

 with three bunches of different flowers.

 Oh.

 And he asked her, yeah, well,

 he asked her to close her eyes

 and then to open them again

 and rapidly say which bunch of flowers she liked best.

 Oh, interesting.

 And then that was the basis.

 That was kind of the, you know,

 the stake in the ground

 as to how they were gonna base the garden.

 Oh, interesting.

 It’s like you remember in Friends

 where Joey can’t figure out what he’s gonna choose.

 So either Ross or someone else says,

 right, cheeseburger or pizza?

 Yes.

 Rachel or Monica?

 Rachel.

 Whatever, I don’t know.

 Just loads of questions like that.

 It’s kind of the same thing, isn’t it?

 To get your immediate reflex action

 rather than just thinking too much.

 You can overthink these things, can’t you?

 Completely.

 She does a lot of art

 and a lot of floral art as well.

 So this, they worked very well together, Arnie and Delia.

 Can you imagine?

 One thing that I did read was that,

 we didn’t see it, I don’t think,

 but there’s a swimming pool and a tennis court

 within these grounds.

 People, we needed to see those.

 But Arnie wanted to remove them

 because he thought they’re ugly.

 Oh, well I’m against him on that.

 They’re still there today.

 Good.

 I can understand

 because they’re not the most beautiful things,

 especially if you’re a garden designer.

 But I can imagine it would be a pretty swimming pool.

 Surely it’s not just gonna be like a,

 I guess you can make it really pretty

 with some nice planting.

 It’s a challenge.

 It’s a challenge, mate.

 And also, again, with climate change,

 more and more people are gonna want swimming pools.

 Oh my gosh, they are.

 I mean, it’s literally going to be essential.

 You go to, if you go to the Med, for example,

 everyone’s got pools regardless

 because you absolutely need a body of water to jump into.

 Yeah, it’s that whole thing of why does 38 degrees in,

 I don’t know, the south of France

 feel a million times better than in Bristol or whatever.

 It’s because they have the infrastructure.

 They have everything in place.

 Yeah, absolutely.

 Their lifestyle.

 Well, one other thing to tell you about this garden

 is that, so it was,

 the garden fell into full disrepair

 by the time the Brokes moved in in the 1980s.

 So they’ve been working on renovating it ever since.

 But there was and still is a wisteria there,

 still there today,

 which they have photos of from 1873.

 Whoa.

 And in 1873, it was really well established.

 That’s amazing.

 It’s the same wisteria.

 So that’s over 150 years old now.

 That’s really, really cool.

 There are some beautiful photos

 off this garden on Arnie’s website.

 So I’ll put a link to that particular page.

 And also you can visit it through the NGS.

 Oh, well, that’s good.

 And they have an open day coming up

 on the 6th of September, 12 till four.

 Okay.

 Or you can book by arrangement between now and,

 oh, I think probably,

 possibly it was from April,

 but anyway, it’s only up until the 11th of October

 this year if you want to have a look at it.

 Okay, do they have cake?

 Undoubtedly.

 Okay.

 Then Monty, he just went on a bit of a,

 almost like a shopping spree,

 but showing off all of the fruit and veg

 that he has growing in his garden.

 Lovely, that mulberry tree with a tiny little fruit.

 Exactly, very small fruit,

 but it’s the first time it’s fruiting.

 So that’s good at least.

 Yeah, which was interesting

 because it’s been such a dry one.

 And he said, you know,

 it’s got very small fruit on account of it being dry.

 And I think he was showing really

 how his different edibles are coping

 with the climate this year.

 Yeah, exactly.

 For us, our fruit trees have done amazingly.

 Our figs, grapes, plums.

 What else have we got?

 Pears.

 Pears.

 We have abundance of pears.

 We have of all of those things

 that I mentioned, it’s really,

 the figs do look smaller,

 but really the plum tree is so overladen with them

 that some of the branches are cracking off.

 Does anyone else’s dog just go crazy

 for the plums and the figs?

 Yeah, she does enjoy her soft fruit, doesn’t she?

 But it is amazing how much we have this year.

 I know.

 It really surprised me.

 I would have thought that they’d be like,

 right, let’s stay off this year, guys.

 My fear is that it’s,

 well basically I worry that what’s happening

 is they’re going, we’re dying.

 Let’s just reproduce as much as possible.

 So let’s just set as much seed.

 So we’re just, everything’s gonna be dead.

 I mean, that’s not a…

 It’s not a bad theory, is it?

 No.

 We will see anyway.

 Fingers crossed.

 Interesting, because his apple tree

 was just chucking loads of the half-ripe fruit

 onto the ground.

 Yeah, not windfall, just getting rid, yeah,

 to give itself more energy.

 Exactly, which I completely understand.

 His Florence Fentanyl was looking very good, actually.

 Gorgeous, it’s a work of art.

 Yeah, the only thing about that is it does bolt

 if it feels the slightest bit of stress.

 It’s quite moody, isn’t it?

 It’s very moody, difficult plant to look after,

 but I do love Florence Fentanyl.

 Yeah.

 Then he also had great courgettes,

 was in there as well,

 dwarf beans, cucumber market more,

 all doing really, really well.

 And he cooks his cucumber.

 Yeah.

 He said he’ll chop it, put it in a pan with butter,

 fry it, then stir in some cream, salt and pepper.

 I’d have to put garlic in.

 Obviously.

 That sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

 Does sound really good.

 I’ve never thought of quite decadent cucumber.

 It does take something that’s really clean, though,

 and make it really dirty.

 I know what you mean.

 It does make it slightly dirty.

 When I think of cucumber,

 I think of it so thinly sliced and raw.

 But anyways, he also has a lot of beans.

 He says apparently he has those

 for breakfast, lunch and supper.

 Ours have just kicked off.

 They have kicked off.

 They’re looking really pretty as well.

 And then cause lettuce,

 he has the red and the green one.

 Yeah, just starting to bolt.

 And finally, purple sprouting broccoli

 is looking amazing, and the chicory.

 Yes, and he has the purple sprouting broccoli

 with the chicory, and it’s providing shade.

 And that’s really helped the chicory this year.

 Exactly.

 So his veggie garden’s just looking great all in all.

 Beautiful.

 And then we meet Maurice Biggins.

 He is in a village called Westley Waterless

 in East Cambridgeshire.

 Oh gosh.

 And we’re looking at his garden,

 his back and front garden.

 And he says how he started when he was young,

 when he was 12.

 His great aunt and uncle had a garden

 which he weeded for a bit of extra pocket money.

 And he fell in love with it.

 He talks about heleniums.

 He loves all the daisy family, particularly heleniums.

 Don’t blame him at all.

 They’re gorgeous, aren’t they?

 Yep.

 And he was working with a new-build house.

 So he had, in terms of the garden, just gravel and grass.

 And he knew he wanted a Mediterranean-style garden.

 And it was looking absolutely gorgeous, wasn’t it?

 Yeah.

 You really achieved that, I thought.

 It was stunning.

 I’m gonna list some of the plants that he had.

 Hed Sedums, Echinacea, Verbena bonariensis,

 Stipa gigantea, Achilleas,

 Perovskia, Eryngiums, Echinops, calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster, Sporobolus

Festuca glauca

and of course,

 if you want all of those plant names,

 Sweepea’s got you back.

 You’ll have a plant list

 if you have subscribed to our website.

 Yes, beautiful plant list.

 And so on some of those,

 he talks about the Sedums being great for the butterflies.

 His Verbena bonariensis was tall,

 but not as tall as ours.

 Oh my God, ours is mental.

 I’m putting ours at about 12 foot, I’d say.

 It is looming above me.

 I do not know what was going on with that.

 Does anyone else have Verbena bonariensis that size?

 It is meant to get a whopping huge.

 But not that tall, surely.

 I think it can.

 Well, it can, obviously, because it is.

 We’ve got some freak variety.

 But also he talks about the Achilleas,

 and he had Chelsea chop the ones nearer the front,

 then just left the ones at the back.

 I like that.

 They both looked just as healthy as each other though.

 Neither looked to have more flowers,

 just one was shorter.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Which would be quite nice in a border

 just to have that variation of height,

 which I can understand.

 So I really like that.

 Now, apparently Maurice, was it Maurice or Morris?

 Morris.

 It’s spelled Maurice, but Morris was a software…

 Is it M-A-U-R-I-C-E?

 Yes.

 Oh, Maurice.

 He was a software engineer for over 20 years,

 and in that job, nothing’s creative.

 It’s all very sort of binary, isn’t it?

 Yeah.

 Because something like that.

 Oh my gosh.

 Computer science.

 Science, degrees.

 And so it was nice for him to do his,

 sort of allow his creative side to flow.

 Yeah, creative side.

 He’s also a keen photographer.

 Yes.

 And he had both a digital and old,

 what do you call it?

 Analogue camera.

 I don’t know what you’d call it.

 And he sort of related gardening to the photography,

 talking about colour wheels.

 Yes.

 And, you know, your palettes of colour and so on.

 Yeah, having that contrast with the colours.

 He uses a lot of the grasses to punctuate

 and add a bit of background and movement.

 And we have a look at his front garden.

 Yeah.

 Which was basically a gravel car park.

 And I loved how he said that,

 so a lot of euphorbias had self-seeded in there.

 They had the verbena Bampton,

 which is rather pretty, that Stipa tenuissima.

 All kind of self-seeded around.

 Yeah.

 And he said he leaves it, a lot of it,

 because it keeps your driving in check, basically,

 when you’re coming in the car.

 I love that.

 I imagine you go in or you’re trying to reverse out

 or just driving and you’ve got your beepers going

 and you get too close to verbena.

 Exactly.

 They’ll be really, really helpful.

 Yeah, a nice soft landing.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Because you hit the brick wall.

 Anyway, but he relies on the cars

 to basically keep it all in check in the front.

 Yeah, very good.

 And also the fact that the Stipa tenuissima

 self-seeds, and he says it just allows that

 because it looks so much better

 than if you’re trying to make it look natural.

 It would just look perfectly natural on its own.

 It all looked great.

 He has a really good eye, for sure.

 At the end, we see Lupus the cat,

 who saunters into frame

 and basically puts Maurice off his stride, doesn’t he?

 Yep, and his top tip, don’t have a cat.

 Don’t have a cat.

 Another top tip, though, is if you have a small garden,

 don’t be afraid to plant big.

 His garden, from the footage, looks huge.

 I know.

 We see a photo, I think, from when it used to just be lawn,

 and it’s kind of a medium-sized garden.

 It’s not that small.

 It’s a decent size.

 It’s decent, but it’s not…

 And especially when you add front and back gardens

 together, the front drives huge.

 I know, lovely.

 So his garden, you can visit it through the NGS.

 Fantastic.

 It’s 41 Maine Street,

 and I’ll just read to you what it says.

 Yes.

 Inspired by the gardens of Piet Oldorf and Beth Chatto,

 the owner has spent the last 10 years

 creating a beautiful tapestry of colour

 in his garden in Westley Waterless.

 Using contemporary design principles

 and with wildlife in mind,

 the garden has year-round interest,

 including drought-tolerant prairie-style borders,

 pond, topiary, herb garden, fruit trees,

 greenhouse, and raised vegetable beds.

 Sounds very cool to me.

Monty’s lifting and dividing his phlox amethyst.

 That’s beautiful.

 I’d like to get some phlox into the garden.

 Yeah.

 Normally you’d do it in September or October,

 but the heat and drought means it’s okay to do that now.

 Yeah, because it’s going over quite quickly.

 So he’s digging up a clump into the barrow.

 Then he digs a hole in the nursery rather than another pot

 so that they can adapt to the biome there.

 Cuts off the top growth

 to get all the growth going into the roots.

 And then he’s keeping the clumps big

 as he wants to be able to plant them out next spring.

 He plants them into the nursery bed.

 I’m still jealous of his nursery beds.

 I love nursery beds.

 I think it’s so fantastic.

 Oh, you’ve really made it

 when you’ve got a nursery bed, haven’t you?

 Yeah.

 He’s planting them in rows

 as it’s easier to keep weed free and to hoe.

 I totally understand that.

 Obviously.

 And then he waters them in.

 Yep. Nice and easy.

 And then he finally shows us his Cornus kousa,

 which have been in these areas

 which he needs to water.

 Well, they’re in the four pots, weren’t they?

 Yeah, sorry, the four pots.

 And apparently he was watering like three of them.

 And then the phone rang.

 He forgot to water the fourth one.

 And that one is looking pretty badly done.

 Easily done.

 But apparently it’s still alive

 because when you scratch it,

 there’s still green on it.

 Reassuring, because it looked completely dead.

 It did.

 And that happened to our lemon and satsuma.

 It did, yes.

 Is it satsuma, tangerine tree?

 I don’t know.

 Something like that.

 They’re in pots.

 We went away for two weeks.

 They were completely dead.

 Frizzled.

 It’s only due to my procrastination

 that they weren’t on the compost heap.

 Oh my gosh, yes.

 Because we left them.

 Yeah.

 I don’t think we even watered them

 and then little green shoots.

 We did water them.

 Did we?

 Yes.

 Or was it just because we had some rain back then?

 No, I watered them.

 Oh, okay.

 It was you the watering them.

 Yes, hello.

 Thank you, because green shoots came up.

 I’m the little gardener who comes around at night

 watering everything.

 That’s all right, it’s fine.

 They’re looking really healthy now.

 They are.

 Anyway, we then have Frances Tophill in North Devon.

 It is raining.

 In the rain.

 It looks so weird to see rain.

 What I would give to see some rain.

 Look bliss.

 It is.

 She does look thoroughly drenched.

 She truly does.

 It’s like mist.

 And she’s in the village of Clovelly.

 I think I called it Clovelly last week.

 Clovelly.

 Clovelly.

 Now this is a village that dates back

 to the 13th century

 and it’s an extraordinary place, isn’t it?

 It’s 400 foot down a cliff.

 Yeah.

 Everything has to be done by foot.

 There are no vehicles.

 Sledge.

 They use a sledge.

 Yeah.

 To take up these cobble,

 this very steep cobble path

 and those cobbles look so smooth.

 They do.

 You can imagine in rain.

 Yeah.

 It’s gonna be very slippery.

 But I must celebrate.

 Yeah.

 Quite a treacherous place to live.

 You don’t want to have any mobility issues

 if you’re living there, do you?

 It’s quite amazing to be so removed.

 An interesting setup.

 Lots of terracing.

 Loads.

 And lots of Buddleja self-seeding in cracks in walls.

 You’ve got roses, fuchsias, hydrangeas also.

 Toad flax.

 Really healthy.

 Yeah.

 Toad flax as well.

 And then that enormous nasturtium cascading down the wall.

 Huge.

 Absolutely stunning.

 It’s practically become a perennial,

 as Frances was saying,

 because it’s so mild,

 it’s able to just carry on growing

 for a really long season.

 It actually surprises me.

 I don’t think nasturtium has been anybody’s

 top five plant

 when we’ve done chit chats and dream gardens.

 Can you remember it ever being mentioned?

 I don’t remember it, no.

 And it’s not on my radar until I then think about it.

 And now I think about it

 because I absolutely love it.

 And it’s such a versatile plant.

 So much you can do with it.

 It’s so easy.

 It’s so easy. It’s low maintenance.

 You can eat the heck out of it.

 I mean, yeah, you can eat the heck out of it.

 I think I probably put it in my five edibles.

 Yes, good idea.

 I feel like I need a bit more room in my ornamentals.

 Okay.

 But also I found a few loopholes.

 Oh, okay.

 We’ll be seeing about that.

 We’ll see one day in the future.

 We then meet Sharon King, who’s made a cuppa.

 She has a garden by her house

 and then across the street as well.

 And she has amazing views.

 But of course, with those amazing views

 means she’s very exposed there

 because she’s essentially on the edge of the cliff.

 The wind whips around.

 Well, and even the waves come over the wall.

 Which is hard to imagine.

 How high are these waves?

 How’s that?

 Tsunami.

 It is a tsunami.

 How’s that working?

 I’m not sure.

 I couldn’t tell how high up she was.

 No, it’s very hard to-

 It’s a difficult camera angle.

 Picture it.

 Camera angle, but also from photos,

 I still can’t entirely figure it out.

 No, but she had loads going on.

 She had lovely sage, Salvia officinalis,

 Californian poppies, lavender, pelargoniums,

 and biden as well.

 They don’t mention it by name,

 but there were photos or there was video film,

 what would you call it, of erigerons everywhere.

 Oh, yes, they were everywhere.

 And I really liked them on cobbles.

 They look so good on cobbles.

 I just really love everything about them.

 There’s a romantic vibe to them.

 And they do remind me of Cornwall and Devon.

 Yeah, very much so.

 We need to get more in.

 We keep saying that.

 We keep saying everything.

 Sharon has some containers, reclaimed pots,

 which she fills with her pelargoniums.

 Yep, exactly.

 And then at the very top of this interesting

 magical mystical place,

 there’s an 18th century walled garden

 called Clovelly Court.

 I wonder if they can get cars up there.

 Yeah, well again, I was trying to gather it.

 There seems to be parking up at the top.

 There seems to be a car park up there.

 I think what happens is you drive to that parking.

 Yeah.

 There’s a visitor’s centre there

 because you actually have to pay to go to this place.

 Oh my gosh.

 I think it’s £9.50 for an adult.

 And so you park there and then the rest is walking.

 So you walk down to the bottom,

 walk back up to the top.

 Cool, blimey.

 Yeah, so you’ve got the walled gardens at the top.

 Head gardener there is Neil Coldrick.

 And we saw more amazing nasturtiums

 and those are all used by the local restaurants.

 Yeah, every part of the plant is used.

 They have a lot of general kind of citrus and soft fruits.

 Because you can, can’t you?

 Peaches, apricots, grapevines.

 Amazing, lemons, oranges.

 Gosh, that is the dream, isn’t it?

 And then they have loads of veg,

 fennel, borage, verbena, fox gloves.

 Not foxgloves, whoa, do not eat foxgloves.

 I can’t believe I put that in there.

 And don’t eat verbena, frankly, at that point.

 Lettuces and parsnips as well.

 Yes.

 Okay, so just fennel, borage,

 lettuces and parsnips, eat those,

 don’t eat verbena nor fox gloves.

 No, thank you.

 Oh my gosh.

 Okay, Sweetpea did not tell you

 to eat verbena or foxgloves.

 Sue McSue Face will be onto you.

 Oh my gosh.

 After eating a foxglove, because Sweetpea said so.

 One star review.

 How dare she make me eat a foxglove?

 I listened, I’m not happy.

 They let everything go to seed, don’t they?

 So they can reuse the seeds there.

 And then-

 That creates a resistant crop.

 It does, which is what you want

 in such an unusual place.

 And then we finish off with Frances,

 who’s headed back down the cliff.

 And she’s at the bottom overlooking the sea.

 That would be lovely.

 There’s lots that I like about the place.

 There’s lots that I couldn’t cope with.

 So apparently, if you want to live there,

 you have to apply.

 There are no holiday homes,

 which I completely understand.

 Oh my gosh, I’m so on board with that.

 But if you want to live there,

 you have to be prepared to be very much

 part of the community.

 Can imagine, yeah.

 So you’ve got to be very involved

 in a lot that goes on in the community,

 which I think is absolutely great,

 not knocking that one little bit.

 No.

 However, for me, who likes to really retreat

 and have my own space.

 Yeah.

 I think I’d probably struggle with that.

 Solo mofo.

 Solo mofo.

 So, but great.

 And as we know,

 keeping sociable wards off Alzheimer’s and dementia

 and those sorts of things.

 So a great place to go

 if you want to ward off any sort of mental illness.

 And also, frankly, that amazing sea air every day.

 It would be incredible, wouldn’t it?

 It’s going to be so,

 the air brand there generally will be so good,

 I can imagine.

 Very clean.

 Very clean.

 Well, originally, the estate was owned

 by William the Conqueror.

 Whoa, what was he doing?

 Isn’t that amazing.

 King of England, gifted to his wife.

 And it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century

 that Clavelli started to become known.

 It was quite sort of hidden from the outside world.

 I can imagine.

 And it was partly as a result of Westwood Ho.

 You know Westwood Ho!,

 because we’ve been,

 this is all, by the way,

 when we used to go to Saunton Sands,

 it’s just sort of down the coastline from there.

 Oh my gosh.

 It’s very much an area that we used to,

 I think we used to go every year,

 didn’t we, to that area?

 We did.

 So this escaped our notice.

 Very much so.

 We should maybe check it out sometime

 if we head that way again.

 Yeah, I think so.

 Beautiful place.

 Gorgeous.

 But if you do want to live there,

 there are 83 houses and around 300 residents.

 That’s good to know.

 There’s an interesting fact

 about the numbering of the houses.

 Apparently it’s unusual in that it starts

 from the top on the left-hand side of the street.

 One.

 And yeah, it starts at one.

 Goes down and then comes back up the other side.

 So the first and the last house

 are next to each other.

 At the same end of the street.

 That’s quite cool.

 And also there are some donkeys there,

 but they’re not being,

 they used to be working donkeys

 who were used for pulling things up

 and down that cobbled street.

 But they don’t so much now,

 but they are visitor attractions.

 So if you love your donkeys,

 there’s a stable full of them

 and you can go have a donkey cuddle.

 Oh, that sounds lovely.

 Monty’s in the potting shed sowing seeds.

 He’s planning for next spring.

 Yeah, he’s sowing cabbage winter jewel.

 He also says,

 we do take for granted the fact

 that we can go to the garden centre in a car.

 Yes, and he was referring to Clovelly, wasn’t he?

 And how they have to do everything by foot.

 Well, first of all, they did of course use donkeys.

 They did.

 They did use and abuse animals.

 Which is rude.

 As has gone on throughout history

 before we had cars.

 But also I think at this place,

 I did read something about a Land Rover.

 There’s a Land Rover that you can book.

 I mean, you’ve got to think

 how are they going to get

 the massive inherited sideboard into their house?

 How are they going to get that Ikea bed

 and the mattress that weighs a tonne into the house?

 Those mattresses are a killer.

 Oh my gosh, they are.

 Yeah.

 So how are you doing all that?

 So there must be something.

 Yeah.

 But perhaps somebody from Clovelly

 can correct us on that.

 Or can you just whack a crane at the top?

 Oh, and dangle things over.

 Dangle things over since it is so steep.

 It’s such a sheer drop.

 You could do that.

 We’ll get a Land Rover.

 I’ll just get a Land Rover.

 Finally, we go to the Isle of Wight.

 This is to the former home

 of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

 Yeah.

 A lot of history here.

 And we meet the head gardener team,

 Ellen and Ali Penstone-Smith.

 Yep.

 Alfred and Emily came to the Isle of Wight

 and fell in love with Farringford,

 where this particular property is.

 And they give a bit of history on it.

 It remained in the family till the 20s.

 Yep.

 When it was, this is so heartbreaking,

 when it was sold to a holiday company

 who developed it,

 turning the house into a hotel.

 So that was pretty brutal.

 But then it was sold again

 and they built 18 holiday cottages

 on top of the wall garden.

 Oh my God.

 And not even particularly nice holiday cottages.

 They looked awful.

 They looked pretty grim, didn’t they?

 Yeah.

 So the work that Ali and Ellen have been doing

 is to transform the gardens back to their former glory.

 Using paintings.

 A job they did.

 Yes, using historical data that they have.

 So any poems, paintings.

 Can you imagine, hard work,

 but what fun to see a painting go,

 right, we’re gonna base it on this.

 Such fun.

 Yeah.

 And now it looks absolutely incredible.

 It looks so grand.

 Yeah.

 I do like how Ellen said that when they first arrived,

 it was just so bleak

 and she really questioned her life choices.

 Gosh, we’ve all been there, Ellen.

 The amount of times I’ve questioned my life choices.

 This place, for example.

 Oh my gosh, we questioned it like crazy.

 Yeah.

 I thought, what have I done?

 In fact, I think I’ve done that

 with most places that I’ve moved to

 because before you buy it,

 you see it sort of all put together.

 Then it’s been left a bit.

 Roast into shades a bit.

 Roast into glasses.

 Glasses.

 And then you think, what on earth have I done?

 Yeah.

 It’s not until you’ve set to work

 and made it your own that you like it.

 So you can imagine a garden that was just grass

 and lots of weeds, just a field, really.

 You’re thinking, what am I doing here?

 Crazy stuff.

 The idea was to recreate something

 to resemble something that Tennyson had.

 And as you mentioned, they used some paintings.

 Those were watercolours by a Victorian artist

 called Helen Allingham.

 Yeah.

 And apparently she was a friend of the Tennyson,

 so she used to go and stay and painted the garden.

 And they got the impression of it

 being a very cottage garden style

 with wild self-seeders, a naturalistic,

 flowing, soft vibe to it.

 Very.

 Which I think later on, Ellen says,

 he was ahead of his time, really,

 in terms of that style

 when everything was much more formal.

 There was a real romantic vibe to it, wasn’t there?

 Oh, very much so.

 She also used Emily’s journals,

 which gave a good idea of what there was.

 And also, some of the poetry.

 You can tell Ellen isn’t 100% on board

 with Tennyson’s poetry.

 It’s not, you know, it’s all horses for courses.

 Yeah.

 It’s not for everyone,

 but you see the other beholder.

 She found some of them were quite long and morbid.

 There were some shorter ones, too,

 and some nature-inspired type poems.

 So I guess you sort of…

 Pick and choose.

 Pick and choose.

 Cherry pick.

 And some were plopped around the garden, weren’t they?

 Little slates. Yes, little quotes from it.

 Yeah, I liked that.

 That was lovely.

 Some of the plants.

 We had veronica stenophylla.

 That’s gorgeous.

 Lovely, nice, white, bushy flowers.

 Then we had a whole load of Salpiglossis.

 No idea what these plants were.

 First time I’ve ever heard of them.

 Totally new to me as well.

 They’re crazy.

 Ali showed three varieties, didn’t he?

 Yeah.

 Blue, really deep, velvety-purply blue.

 Beautiful, like edible.

 Yeah, that was edible.

 Black trumpets.

 But tell Sue McSue Face not to eat them.

 We don’t know if they are actually edible.

 Sue McSue Face, do not eat.

 Black trumpets is another one.

 And then I really liked the cafe au lait.

 That was such a caramel cafe look to it.

 But it was interesting,

 because Ali said there were three varieties,

 and named those three.

 We saw images of those three,

 but I swear we saw some others.

 There was a white one

 with these kind of yellow streaks coming through.

 Don’t know what that was.

 There was a sort of multi-coloured one

 with a lot of different colours in it,

 almost rainbow-coloured.

 No idea what that was.

 They had more than three in there.

 I’d love to know what those other ones were.

 But they definitely had more than three.

 They just only named three of their favourite ones.

 Oh, I see.

 I thought he said we have three varieties.

 No, they were just three of their favourite ones.

 Oh.

 No, no, they had a whole load.

 Okay, everything I just said, ignore.

 Ignore.

 Time out.

 They sound like a nightmare to grow.

 Oh, my God, they sound like a complete nightmare.

 I can’t believe they’re even growing them.

 Total disasters, so they’re very fiddly.

 They don’t like humid.

 They don’t like windy, drizzly conditions.

 So they only work in the greenhouse.

 The look that they gave after saying all of that

 was just like, yeah, people would,

 we don’t know why we have them.

 But I like it when people just go for it with one plant.

 They’re like, you will survive.

 I will make this happen.

 Come on now.

 So I really liked that.

 And then I loved some other plants that they had.

 They had Rosa Pure Poetry.

 Great name for a plant in that garden.

 It certainly was.

 Ami, it can be quite a thug,

 but it adds that kind of careless ordered look.

 I liked how she said careless ordered.

 I like that kind of word.

 I think that came from Tennyson.

 I think that’s a phrase that he used, wasn’t it?

 Very much so.

 And then yuccas as well and old roses.

 Yes.

 We gather that the entire garden is high maintenance.

 They have volunteers to come in.

 It’s a huge amount of work, isn’t it?

 And I admire that.

 And we need the gardens that require a lot of work

 because we need to keep all those plants going.

 Yeah, very much so.

 I think for me, my general lazy attitude towards gardening,

 it’s not an option, but that’s why it’s not my garden.

 That’s why we go to the Isle of Wight and visit

 this particular garden.

 And that’s why people generally visit gardens

 is to look at something that you can’t have.

 Someone else having done all the work.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Well, it seems like Ellen’s a bit of a legend

 in the gardening world.

 This June, she won the Harold Hillier Award

 in recognition for her work at that wall garden.

 Cor blimey.

 Yeah, her work was described as a master class

 in horticulture.

 Well, that’s pretty amazing.

 I mean, you don’t get better than that.

 I don’t think you can.

 So it’s amazing that she received this just this year.

 When she accepted the award,

 she said it was an absolute honour.

 And then she went on to pay tribute to her husband,

 Ali, thanking him for supporting the family

 while she balanced the demands of the project

 and raising their young child.

 Oh, that’s amazing.

 I really like that.

 Yeah, incredible.

 So big congratulations to Ellen.

 That’s fantastic.

 Yeah, huge congratulations.

 And also, is it open?

 Oh, yeah, good point.

 It’s open Tuesdays to Saturdays.

 Oh, cool.

 It’s open from the 14th of April until 31st of October.

 Oh, that’s a nice period.

 And also, if you’ve got the Gardeners’ World

 two-for-one card.

 Oh, hell yeah.

 That’s valid on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

 Great stuff.

 Monty’s taking some thyme into the bean’s bed.

 Thymus vulgaris.

 Yeah, and he’s poor soil with good drainage,

 which is why he’s doing it in the raised beds.

 And it needs full-on sunshine, no shade at all.

 He also said that you need to keep an eye on it

 getting woody to keep cutting it back.

 It’s like all those Mediterranean herbs, isn’t it?

 And then it’s jobs for the weekend.

 Deadhead Buddlejas, clean out gutters,

 water rhododendrons, azaleas, and camellias.

 And then Monty also says,

 don’t forget to use your grey water.

 And I saw an interesting post on this on social media

 by Niall McCauley, who put a reel together

 about grey water.

 And at first I was thinking,

 oh yeah, here we go, another one of those reels.

 But actually he made some very valid points.

 He says, use your, you know,

 we obviously think of grey water

 as being our shower water, things like that.

 He said also collect things like the leftover water

 in the kettle, you know,

 when you get that little lime scaly bit out the bottom,

 the water that you use to wash your fruit and veg,

 that half empty bottle

 that’s been rolling around in your car.

 Yes.

 Even dehumidifier water, if you’ve got a dehumidifier.

 Okay.

 Though don’t use that on your edibles.

 No.

 You know, when you’ve boiled an egg,

 use that water, water from spent flower vases,

 all those sorts of things.

 And I was thinking, you know,

 if you’ve got say a really pretty ornate watering can,

 you know, a little one.

 Yeah.

 Just looks pretty,

 you know, you can get those really nice ornate ones,

 perhaps with a William Morris print on,

 I feel like I’ve seen that before.

 It’s the kind of thing you get

 from those garden centres that do everything,

 not just plants.

 From your wellies to your crocs to your.

 Ornate watering cans.

 Cushion covers.

 But if we got one of those

 and it just was in the kitchen

 as a feature in your kitchen.

 Yeah.

 And then you just always put in those bits of water,

 it would soon add up.

 That would be pretty cool actually.

 A good way of using water

 that otherwise just goes down the drain.

 Yeah, I like that.

 Another thing I think we should do

 is do you remember there was that guy

 on Gardeners World quite a while ago

 who had the new build manifesto.

 Oh yeah.

 Do you remember him?

 Yeah.

 I think there should be a new build manifesto

 for the houses that say all new builds

 should now have that plumbing system

 that routes your rainwater into your toilet systems.

 Oh my gosh.

 It so should have that.

 Cause it’s a basic bit of plumbing kit.

 Yeah, it’s not difficult.

 And if it was just integral,

 purpose built right from the beginning

 when they’re building these new houses.

 Yeah.

 All toilet systems just has your rainwater.

 They should so do that.

 Don’t you think?

 Imagine how much water would be saved.

 Yeah, I completely and utterly agree.

 Who do I need to speak to?

 I need to put a petition together for the government.

 You do.

 I need to get 10,000 signatures.

 Yep.

 So that they will talk about it

 in the House of Commons.

 Anyway, finally, Monty’s giving Topiary Nigel

 his annual haircut.

 Yeah.

 And he finishes by saying,

 like everything else in the garden, give it a go.

 I like that.

 Me too.

 Good piece of advice.

 What was your favourite plant?

 Was the Kniphofia Toffee Nosed.

 Okay.

 Really liked that.

 Yeah.

 It was a gorgeous variety.

 I liked the Salpiglossis.

 Is that how you pronounce it?

 I have no idea.

 I hope so.

 Salpiglossis.

 Yeah.

 I loved the Kew Blue,

 but I also really liked that rainbow-y coloured one.

 Yeah.

 Really sort of bold and brash.

 Yeah.

 But I will never, ever get it for garden

 because it sounds an utter, utter drama queen.

 Utter drama queen.

 Yeah, well, I really liked that as well.

 What was your top takeaway?

 Don’t have phone calls and don’t have cats.

 Very good point.

 Mine was, like everything else in the garden,

 give it a go.

 Absolutely.

 Right.

 Next time, sweetie, on the 28th of August.

 Yes.

 As a summer marked by record-breaking heat

 and prolonged drought comes to a close,

 Monty reflects how it has tested gardeners

 across the country.

 From parched borders to sun-scorched lawns,

 he looks at the impact of low or no rainfall

 and offers some solutions for the plant’s worst hit.

 Yet amid the challenges, there is reason for optimism.

 As the gardening year turns towards autumn,

 he gathers seeds, takes cuttings

 and prepares the ground for seasons to come,

 proving that gardening is always an act of hope.

 Joe Swift visits a family-run nursery in Dorset

 that is putting the herb back into herbaceous borders.

 Reka Mistry shares the results of her container challenge

 with her harvest of dwarf fruit and vegetables,

 growing solely in pots on her sun-baked patio.

 In Essex, a passionate grower showcases

 his remarkable collection of agaves,

 whilst in Cumbria, a young couple share their top tips

 for creating a vibrant, colorful garden

 packed with personality, practical ideas

 and a planting flair.

 Very cool.

 Bit of a litteration at the end.

 A little bit of a litteration.

 Well, if you want to get in touch,

 if you’ve got any comments, questions or corrections.

 Constructive criticism.

 Or constructive criticism, all the Cs,

 apart from the Q, which sounds like a C,

 then you can do so through our website at…

 Notjustagarden.co.uk

 Or you can contact us through our email at which is…

 Notjustagarden@outlook.com

 And as Sweetpea mentioned earlier,

 if you subscribe to our website,

 you will receive the plant lists from every week

 that Sweet Pea puts together, beautifully illustrated.

 And you’ll also get all the usual things in the blog.

 So any visuals that we’ve got of this audio podcast.

 Exactly, and any helpful links.

 Any helpful links.

 Well, Sweetpea, what do you have to do now?

 I’m going to create my Amazon shopping basket

 for the back-to-school stuff.

 Or your highlighters.

 Highlighters galore.

 We shall see you next week.

 We sure will.

 Thank you for listening.

 Bye-bye, Sweetpea.

 Bye, Mummy Bear.