Hi, Sweetpea

Hi Mummy Bear

How are you?

 I’m doing very well.

 It’s a new week and one week nearer to my midterm exams,

 which is always fun.

 Next week?

 Yes, next week.

 They’re kind of all dotted around,

 so it’s now kind of every other week.

 From next week onwards, I have an exam,

 which is about 30% of the overall mark

 in those kind of different sections.

 So next week, I’ve got microbiology,

 and that will be really interesting to see how that goes.

 But you’re getting on a lot better this year, aren’t you?

 You head down, you’ve got your eye on the prize.

 PMA.

 Feeling good.

 I’m feeling good.

 Yeah, exactly.

 But I’m just, yeah, I’m going with the flow of things.

 I’m not worrying.

 I’m worrying, but I’m not getting into a frenzy

 and I’m taking time to…

 Not freaking out.

 Yeah, I’m taking time to understand things.

 And yeah, I’ve really enjoyed this weekend,

 even though I spent all weekend really revising

 and revising kind of from seven till eight at night.

 Seven in the morning.

 Seven in the morning till eight.

 Otherwise, that’s really pathetic.

 Popping in an hour’s shift each day.

 Okay, let’s do an hour.

 What?

 Gosh, that would be so bad.

 I mean, I’m sure.

 That would be rubbish, frankly.

 Yeah, that would be really, really bad.

 But yeah, seven in the morning till eight at night.

 And yeah, just really enjoyed it.

 And I’ve done a little bit of music as well.

 I make time for a little bit of music.

 I did my weekly shop.

 I did what I like to call take away Sunday and get a plant Sunday.

 Yes.

 Which I think is a very catchy…

 It really rolls off the tongue.

 What was your takeaway?

 Well, I wanted to get myself a takeaway for lunch

 and then all the shops were shut.

 So I was like, that’s not right.

 So I just had to go to the supermarket

 and get a nice salmon wrap.

 That was nice.

 And then on the way back,

 the garden centre’s open on a Sunday,

 which is really, really nice.

 And I got myself a plant

 with the last bit of money that I had

 on the gift card that you got me.

 Yes.

 And I was able to get, which you can see.

 I can.

 But the gorgeous allocation behind me.

 The only thing that I didn’t like about how it was labelled

 was it just said allocation.

 It was like, what does that mean?

 They are so diverse.

 You can’t just say allocation.

 But I love this one because the leaves are huge.

 Like the pot.

 It’s miniscule.

 The pot is probably about five centimetres by five centimetres.

 It’s seriously tiny.

 And then the leaf on this thing

 is about the size of my hand.

 And I’ve got big hands.

 So just imagine a big hand.

 Great big shields.

 Yeah, like they’re really beautiful.

 It’s got this amazing cream veins

 that go through the middle.

 And then the rim of the leaf is all in cream.

 And then it’s a really dark…

 Green.

 Green.

 I’m trying to find a more romantic way of saying it,

 but it’s just a really…

 It’s just green.

 It’s a slightly sludgy green.

 It’s like a swamp green.

 There we go.

 That’s romantic.

 Really romantic.

 It’s a swamp green and it’s really shiny as well.

 Yeah.

 So if anyone knows specifically what that one is,

 I did look it up.

 I Google imaged it.

 I’m thinking it’s possibly either allocation poly

 or allocation dwarf Amazonica.

 It’s not a very dwarf,

 but it looks pretty much the same.

 Right.

 It looks to me like a mini version of some of the ones

 that Alina showed us when we did a chitchat with her.

 She held up one of her allocations

 and it looks exactly like that one.

 It looks like quite a classic looking allocation.

 And you’ve got it in your family heirloom pot

 that came from whatever the range was called

 back in 25 years ago,

 whatever it was 30 years ago.

 Back in my day.

 Back in my day.

 Yeah.

 Fantastic pot.

 That’ll be going down in generations.

 But you’re going to need to pot it up, aren’t you?

 Because it is in such a small pot.

 Yes.

 I’ll have to figure out how to do that

 in a very white walled apartment.

 Well, again, Alina,

 I think she’s doing it all in her apartment.

 So I need to follow her lead on that.

 Anyway, so what have you been up to?

 Well, because we’re on a break between chitchat series

 that’s freed up a whole load of my time.

 So I’m finally getting around to doing the jobs I need to do.

 And one of them, sweetpea,

 I have spent the weekend re-siliconing your shower.

 Oh, really?

 Oh, fantastic.

 I bit the bullet

 because I’d had quotes for it

 and it all was just costing a lot of money.

 And I did think I could probably do it.

 I don’t want to, but I probably could.

 And in the interest of saving the pennies,

 I decided to go for it.

 So I went and bought all the kit.

 I bought the scraper to remove the old silicone.

 And I bought this special stuff

 that dissolves any remnants of silicone.

 Wow.

 And I couldn’t find any rubbing alcohol,

 which is what is suggested for the final clean

 because it dries very quickly

 and it doesn’t leave any kind of residue

 because you need everything really, really, really clean.

 Otherwise the silicone isn’t going to stick.

 And the silicone apparently doesn’t stick to old silicone either.

 So you can’t have a single remnant on there.

 Bummer. Okay.

 So I spent, over the course of two days,

 I was removing silicone.

 Fantastic.

 And really thick bits that were just black behind.

 Yes.

 Nasty looking stuff.

 It was bad.

 It was bad news.

 Yeah.

 And then I left that to dry.

 And then I went for it,

 pulling together all YouTube resources that I had.

 I watched all the videos.

 And then I went for it.

 I knew what angle to cut the nozzle at.

 I knew how to control the speed of the silicone

 coming out of the cork gun.

 Such a dude.

 But the issue was that the way your bathroom

 has to be built is that it’s a very, very old bathroom.

 And the tiles are,

 there’s a massive gap between the bottom of the tile

 and the surface of the shower tray.

 Oh, shiza-balls.

 So as I was squeezing the silicone along,

 doing my nice, even steady handed line,

 it just was filling into the gap

 and disappearing off into the ether behind those tiles.

 That’s where it goes.

 I don’t know.

 It’s all gone off somewhere.

 So I then got into an absolute mess.

 I had a podcast on the speaker

 and I was just in such mess.

 That’s why you were using the podcast.

 I had loads and loads of paper towels

 and I had silicone everywhere.

 I had it in my hair.

 I had it in my shirt.

 I had it all over your bathroom.

 But anyway, we got there.

 We got there in the end.

 And I think it’s looking pretty cool.

 Pretty good.

 So the next time you’re home,

 you can road test it

 and we’ll see if we’ve got any leaks downstairs.

 And I can actually shower in the shower

 and not just in the corner of the shower.

 Is that what you do again?

 I would shove myself in one corner

 so that it wouldn’t touch the opposite corner

 because I knew that’s where the leak was coming from

 because we had tested it.

 I had tested the four corners.

 I’d based myself and I found that it was in that corner

 that it just went straight through the ceiling pretty much.

 Okay.

 Cool.

 Well, it shouldn’t do any more.

 And that saved me a couple of hundred.

 Fantastic.

 The only thing is I did do my back in

 because it sort of contorted into this difficult position.

 You know, I’m using a razor blade

 to scrape out all silicone.

 I mean, it just is all hell broke loose.

 But anyway, my back went, but that’s okay.

 I did some long walks with Hobbs to ease it up.

 Nice.

 And I think it’s all right now.

 So save some money.

 Have shortened my lifespan a little bit,

 but it’s been worth it.

 So that I can…

 So that the roof doesn’t cave in

 because of my rotting shower.

 Yep, exactly.

 Lovely.

 So that was me really in the garden.

 I’m just collecting the last of the tomatoes

 which are absolutely delicious.

 And there’s nothing like plucking a warm tomato off the vine

 and shoving it in your gob.

 So good.

 Yeah.

 As said in this episode, actually,

 tomatoes are best had warm kind of room temperature.

 Not like warm, warm.

 That’s just weird.

 But kind of the sun warm, that kind of thing.

 Yes.

 We hear you.

 We hear you.

 Now, Sweetpea, a lot of people online

 have been speculating as to who’s going to be

 the new Gardeners’ World presenter.

 Or certainly the one to replace Monty.

 He’s irreplaceable,

 but whoever’s going to take over.

 Yeah.

 A lot of people are saying Frances.

 A lot of people are saying Adam.

 So that’s if it was to be from

 the present Gardeners’ World team.

 Jeremy Clarkson who…

 Do you know who Jeremy Clarkson is?

 Him off…

 Top Gear.

 Top Gear fame.

 Oh my gosh.

 No, not him to be…

 No, no, no.

 Not him to be doing it,

 but he writes a lot of columns

 and he suggested a 27 year old Irish influencer

 called Chloe Winter.

 She posts gardening videos under the name

 Blooms and Green on social media.

 They’re quite fun videos.

 I had a look to see what he was talking about

 and she’s quite energetic.

 Oh cool.

 She’s got a nice way about her,

 but I don’t know if it’s quite what

 Gardeners World is looking for.

 She’s got a big following.

 She’s got 672,000 followers on Instagram.

 Something like 250 odd thousand on TikTok.

 Okay.

 But also we had a listener email

 with a suggestion.

 So I’m going to read that to you now.

 Okay.

 Dear SP&B,

 were you shocked that Monty handed in his notice

 or did you already know?

 To answer that, we didn’t know.

 No, I really didn’t know

 because I do not see that stuff.

 The only reason I knew

 because I don’t have my head buried in social media

 all day was one of our listeners,

 Gill, actually contacted us

 and said, this is not a drill.

 Yes.

 This is not a drill.

 I repeat, this is not a drill.

 Which I’m glad he put that

 because I wouldn’t have responded

 because I saw I had a message on Instagram

 and I wouldn’t have responded

 because I was ahead in books

 with other stuff going on.

 And then I saw this is not a drill

 and I thought I better check that out.

 So thanks Gill for sending that.

 So this listener who’s called Tracy,

 she says, we weren’t expecting it at all.

 Hubby and I have been discussing his successor

 and he suggested Kim Wilde.

 Do you know who Kim Wilde is?

 She got a podcast or something.

 We’re the Kids of America.

 The Kids of America.

 Oh my gosh.

 Yes.

 Yes.

 Yes.

 Well, she got heavily into gardening.

 I don’t think she’s been on garden as well before.

 Maybe she has,

 but she’s been on certain gardening programs

 and she’s absolutely lovely.

 I think she went on to get

 some horticultural qualifications.

 Don’t quote me on that.

 Anyway, so Tracy’s email goes on.

 She says he has an ulterior motive

 because he had a big crush on her as a teenager.

 So I don’t know how relaxing

 the program would be for me.

 But apart from that,

 I love the idea.

 Can you arrange it?

 Now, Tracy, I think you think we have more say

 in what goes on with garden as well.

 We really don’t.

 We don’t have any say.

 But then she continues a very nice bit.

 She says, I love your podcast.

 Please keep it up.

 You’re so relatable.

 Feels like I’m listening to my sister

 and niece every week.

 Bear, I’m a woman of a certain age too,

 so get your brain, Fox.

 And Sweetpea, best of luck with your exams.

 I’m rooting for you.

 Happy gardening.

 Love, Tracy.

 And then in brackets, and Rick.

 I’m just going to assume Rick is the hubby.

 That’s a really sweet message.

 Thank you so much for that.

 Yes.

 Thanks, Tracy.

 It’s absolutely lovely message.

 And I do love the idea of Kim Wild.

 Wouldn’t have crossed my mind,

 but now you’ve mentioned it.

 I’d be chuffed to bits if Kim Wild was on.

 Yeah.

 They could do a cross between the Kids of America

 and the Gardeners’ World theme tune.

 Yeah.

 Start it.

 That would be epic.

 But whilst we’re on listener messages,

 I also have one from Lucy.

 Holy moly.

 She says, hi girls.

 Love the podcast.

 You’re a breath of fresh air

 and it makes my week listening to you.

 I’m often staying away in hotels with work.

 I can completely relate to that, Lucy.

 Yes.

 Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

 My God.

 Million times.

 And she says, and if I’m honest,

 it can get lonely.

 Having you on in the car chatting,

 all sorts, makes it a lot less stressful.

 So thank you.

 Oh.

 I just wanted to let you know

 that I heard the episode

 when you talked about your grandmother’s china

 containing lead paint.

 Yes.

 Yeah.

 It threw me into panic

 as we have a lot of vintage crockery,

 including my great-grandmother’s tea set.

 I invested in a lead detection kit

 and wouldn’t you know,

 we too have been eating and drinking from lead paint.

 Yeah.

 Thank you for sharing your experience.

 It hadn’t even crossed my mind

 that we might have a problem all the best, Lucy.

 Well, thanks for sharing that, Lucy.

 Yeah.

 It was a shocker for us too.

 Yeah.

 Important to get the word out there.

 Just to be aware,

 not to like freak out.

 Oh, no.

 Freak out.

 Yeah.

 Don’t want to be eating of that.

 No, but don’t be like,

 I’m going to die.

 No.

 Yeah.

 You should completely freak out

 if you’re going to die.

 You should.

 No.

 Don’t freak out.

 Sweetpea’s the sensible one.

 Thank you.

 Anyways, an interesting couple of emails

 and just whilst I’m on it,

 there was a message from Greg from Leafy Lytham,

 Sweetpea.

 Oh, I love that guy.

 He wishes you lots of luck

 in your exams as well.

 Oh, thank you.

 Right.

 I have a little bit of housekeeping.

 Oh, yes.

 I’m sure I do.

 I have a few bits and pieces

 actually from last week.

 Always have housekeeping.

 It’s crazy.

 Yeah.

 Usually it’s on me

 because I spout something

 that’s just completely incorrect.

 Oh.

 Anyway.

 I do the same.

 Let me hit you with these.

 So first of all,

 you know I was talking about

 Mandy Barber and Incredible Vegetables.

 Yes.

 I mentioned her

 when we were recapping

 about Fred and Ronja’s segments.

 I was saying that like her.

 Yes.

 They’re part of a collective.

 I didn’t put two and two together.

 They’re all part of the same

 Bloomin’ Collective, Sweetpea.

 The Badderford Collective.

 Oh, gosh.

 So ignore what I said last week

 about, oh, how amazing.

 Because I think Mandy’s also part of the collective.

 They’re all part of the same thing.

 They’re in the same place.

 They’re on that same area of land.

 They’re sort of adjacent plots

 and running their businesses from there.

 So that’s what the Badderford Collective is.

 Very cool.

 Those watering bags for trees.

 Yes.

 It looks like you were right

 to have concerns about the tree rotting.

 I found a really interesting article

 from a website called

 gardenprofessors.com.

 Sounds good.

 And I’ll just read you

 a couple of things that they say.

 Unfortunately, they often deliver

 other things as well as water,

 including pests, disease and early death.

 Anything that covers the trunk of young trees

 and reduces airflow and light exposure

 will over time create a dark, moist

 and reduced oxygen environment

 that’s damaging to the bark of young trees.

 Wet, damaged bark allows opportunistic pests

 and pathogens to invade.

 There are many types of irrigation bags,

 from sleeves to doughnuts,

 but none of them are as good for tree

 or soil health as a thick layer

 of arborist wood chips.

 When wood chips can’t be used for some reason,

 irrigation bags set well away from the tree

 and actually kept full of water

 might be a good solution.

 So, what’s his name?

 Adam.

 He was saying because he had the multi-stem tree,

 he couldn’t use the bag on that,

 so he did it by a stake, didn’t he?

 Around a stake that was by the tree.

 And what this article suggests

 is that that’s what you do anyway.

 If you’re going to use those,

 if you can’t for some reason

 use loads of good mulch,

 is you set a stake up away from the tree,

 put the bag around that stake,

 channel the water towards the tree roots

 and that’s a safer way of doing it.

 Okay.

 Anyway, I’ll add that article to the website

 so you can read that in your own time.

 Cool.

 And just a final little catch up

 with some of our Chit Chat guests,

 Chit Chat catch up.

 You know the wonderful Patrick Smichael?

 Yes.

 From Smile with Smikle.

 He was on our Chit Chats way back.

 I think he was the third guest we ever had.

 Lovely, lovely guy.

 He’s the one who did the amazing work

 for the alleys at the back of his place in Manchester.

 Well, he’s only gone and won

 a Best of Manchester Award 2026.

 He won the Best of Neighbourhood Award.

 This is a special recognition award

 for a resident who continually goes the extra mile,

 leads by example,

 and is committed to make their community

 a better place for everyone.

 Isn’t that lovely?

 That’s really lovely.

 So he got to meet the mayor

 and I think he had dinner with the mayor

 and went to this nice function.

 I just thought that couldn’t have gone to a better person.

 So big congratulations to you, Patrick.

 That’s very cool.

 Big congrats.

 And also whilst we’re on that kind of thing,

 Dwayne Black,

 he has got a first class honours

 in psychology and counselling.

 Hey, hey.

 He just got that I think last week

 and he put on his post

 Next Stop UCL

 and in brackets,

 Clinical Mental Health Sciences.

 So he’s going on to do a bit more study

 by the sounds of it.

 Cor blimes.

 So big congrats to Dwayne.

 Yeah, huge.

 Finally,

 just one more thing.

 Our hat trick of gold medal winners

 who seem to be going to all the shows this year

 and wiping the floor

 is Greg from Leafy Lytham,

 Dan from Dan’s Plants,

 and Peter and Helleentje from Wack’s Wicked Plants.

 They all went and got gold

 at Harrogate Autumn Flower Show.

 Dan getting a premier gold,

 I think it’s called.

 Big congratulations to you guys.

 What a phenomenal year they’ve all had.

 I know.

 Gosh.

 Impressive, hey?

 That’s quite something.

 Well, that’s all I’ve got for this week.

 That’s a lot.

 So shall we see you next week?

 See you next week.

 Goodbye, ciao.

 But we’ll do a recap first.

 Probably should.

 All right.

 So this is Gardeners’ World 2026,

 episode 26, recap.

 Allotment style.

 We start off with Frances

 and she’s wandering around an unknown area

 with us.

 We do not know where she is.

 She just is in the undergrowth,

 but she’s creating a hedgehog home

 with the really cute little lid,

 little wall in the middle

 so that predators can’t get round,

 and then lots of hay,

 and then she’s plonking it nicely

 behind a whole load of hedges,

 and then you wait.

 On a north-facing site.

 On a north-facing site.

 Also, it sounds like it’s an M&S

 wildlife garden because she says

 this isn’t just any wildlife garden.

 Oh.

 Weren’t you just waiting for her to say,

 this is an M&S wildlife garden?

 Yes.

 Oh my gosh, I forgot that.

 And these wildlife gardens are,

 in fact, ex-mith allotments in Devon.

 Yes.

 Aren’t they?

 There’s Pound Lane,

 which has 150 plots on a south-facing slope,

 and then Hamilton Lane,

 which has over 17 acres of plots.

 I know.

 It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?

 Mental.

 Just in case you’re interested,

 there’s an annual fee for these.

 It’s 50 pounds for a half plot,

 100 quid for a full plot.

 Okay.

 Wow.

 That’s really decent.

 Not bad, is it?

 Yes.

 And then Frances also introduces the fact

 that these community gardens,

 these community allotments,

 really work on the community with a big C.

 And so they have polytunnels for teaching.

 They have summer houses with lots of books

 and recipes and generally areas

 for you to go and have a nice cream tea,

 which sounds obviously amazing.

 And then even little community gardens in themselves,

 so actual places where everyone comes together

 in that garden, like an orchard or whatever.

 Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

 Yeah, it sounds really nice.

 And we meet Cheryl Chessam and Sam Ulford,

 and they’re involved in helping to manage the plots,

 aren’t they?

 Yeah, exactly.

 And then it’s to Bradford to meet Zahabia Naveed

 and Alan Wainwright.

 Alan describes her as Gen Z and himself as a baby boomer.

 Zahabia is marvelling at all his sprouts,

 five inside, six outside.

 Alan says,

 always plant more than what you think you need.

 Yes, I think that’s what everyone does already.

 And this is absolutely lovely,

 because as Alan says,

 they’re from two very different generations.

 They’re a good few decades between them.

 And the way they met was through Zahabia’s mother,

 who was a work colleague of Alan’s at the time.

 And he asked her if she knew anyone who could give him

 a hand with the plot.

 And Zahabia came and she kept coming.

 And she’s been going since 2019.

 And before she met him,

 Zahabia didn’t have a clue about horticulture.

 And then after meeting him,

 she went off and did an apprenticeship in the horticulture.

 And so she studied for two years at Harlow Car in Harrogate.

 And she says how meeting Alan has changed everything.

 And it was interesting reading on her social media,

 because she said at school,

 she wasn’t particularly academic for those sorts of subjects,

 but she didn’t know what she wanted to do.

 And then spending this time with Alan

 suddenly gave her clarity and gave her a direction.

 And then she’s just taken the ball and run with it.

 And the enthusiasm was just overflowing from her, wasn’t it?

 She was the most delightful person of this episode, I thought.

 It was infectious for Zahabia and Alan, wasn’t it?

 Yeah, if we had to give a gold medal out

 to the most infectious with joy and happiness.

 Positivity.

 Yeah, just all of that.

 It would go to her absolutely.

 Oh my gosh.

 The world needs lots of Zahabias, I think.

 Because that energy is spot on.

 Alan then talks about his sweet corn.

 He says, I was once told if you have sweet corn on allotment,

 everybody should have the same variety.

 And they show theirs, which he calls tatty,

 but Zahabia says it’s because they haven’t been pollinated properly.

 She thinks they should have hand pollinated them.

 They then look at their rhubarb.

 That’s amazing.

 Amazing, huge.

 But it’s got black fly, hasn’t it?

 So they’re pulling up the leaves.

 Yeah, and that’ll be cooked up.

 Yeah, and then Zahabia makes a dig about Alan’s biceps.

 Yeah, good biceps.

 At one point, Alan belts out, cow manure.

 I know.

 I feel like Zahabia was trying to talk,

 and then you just go out and go, hey, what?

 Cow manure.

 It was.

 It was when Zahabia marvels at this giant rhubarb leaf.

 And then a bit later on, he says something about cow manure.

 Yes.

 They all just talk.

 They do talk about it and how they cook a nice mulch of that

 on top of the raspberries to really feed them over the winter.

 The Lord of cow manure over winter.

 So that seems to be their secret ingredient,

 not so secret ingredient.

 Zahabia says how they come from different backgrounds,

 cultures, religions, but they talk about their own experiences

 about growing up and they exchange a lot of knowledge.

 I really love it.

 It reminds me of a friend of mine whose daughter

 is at university in the Netherlands.

 And for cheap accommodation,

 the system that they have is that they’ll have old people

 who need company but have a home.

 A young person, a student, doesn’t have much money,

 needs somewhere to stay.

 And it’s the bringing together of those two generations.

 It benefits the older generation because they have the company.

 They have someone to care for, be cared by.

 And it helps the younger generation

 because it gives them great accommodation

 and gives them a bit of camaraderie

 with the elderly person that they’re living with.

 And it just seems a really good system.

 I think they do it a lot across Northern Europe,

 across possibly Europe in general.

 But yeah, I’ve heard of it in a few countries over there

 and it’s just such a good idea, I think.

 It’s a win-win for everybody.

 Yeah, I can see how that would be a really, really good thing to have.

 Bringing together different generations.

 Anyway, these guys have been very busy.

 They’ve entered a lot of competitions.

 They got five awards last year

 for their runner beans, onions, cucumbers.

 It was like a massive smiley face, according to Zahabia.

 And then we move on to the raspberries and Zahabia’s

 talking about pruning the autumn versus summer fruiting varieties.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Zahabia talks a bit about just how the autumn raspberries

 in the summer ones, the fruiting time is different

 and therefore cutting back is a different time.

 And just frankly, if she doesn’t know,

 she’ll just look it up on the internet

 and how people shouldn’t worry about not knowing.

 You have the internet, you have books.

 Just look it up.

 Yeah, yeah.

 She does marvel at how Alan coped pre-internet.

 Yeah.

 And he agrees internet’s a good thing,

 but he still likes to refer to all his books.

 I can imagine.

 It is a really nice thing to do.

 It was more simple.

 I watched Room with a View the other night.

 Oh, great film.

 Yes.

 So nice.

 Pre-internet, see?

 Pre-internet.

 They were playing tennis and swing ball.

 Yes, reading and stuff.

 Yeah, and playing piano.

 There was such nice air to it

 instead of just screens everywhere.

 It also helped that they were in Tuscany.

 Yes.

 I mean, that’s going to help with everything.

 Anyway.

 It’s a beautiful part of the world.

 I got what Alan meant about that.

 Yeah.

 And then at the end, he says,

 if he hadn’t met Zahab yet,

 he probably wouldn’t be on this plot.

 He said, he’s nearly 80, which shocked me.

 He did not look nearly 80 at all.

 He looked really…

 He was looking as fit as a fiddle.

 Hip and now.

 Hip and now.

 And he said that the comradeship is so important for him.

 He said, we’re good comrades.

 Well, Zahabia and Alan

 have got a little social media thing going on.

 Oh, really?

 I’m assuming it’s set up by Zahabia,

 but they are on YouTube.

 They’re on Instagram and they’re on TikTok.

 Cool, blimey.

 I don’t have TikTok,

 so I don’t know what was going on there.

 I think they’ve got a fairly decent following there.

 That’s got to be Zahabia.

 It’s got to be.

 And I think they’re both called the same thing.

 So on Instagram, there’s Zahabiculture.

 So I think that will be the same name on TikTok.

 One of the things that she said

 on one of her more recent posts

 is how they actually rotavate that plot every year.

 Every year, they rotavate the whole plot.

 Wow.

 It’s quite something, isn’t it?

 Yeah.

 She also says,

 did you pick up on what my favourite number is?

 Six, seven.

 Yes.

 But Alan doesn’t know what that means.

 And I thought, well, does anyone know what that means?

 No.

 Can you tell me what that means?

 No.

 It doesn’t actually mean anything, does it?

 It doesn’t.

 It’s such a stupid brain rot thing.

 Everyone going with their hands, six, seven.

 And it means absolutely nothing.

 And I think, isn’t it,

 to sort of take the mickey out of older generations

 and make them think it’s something that it isn’t?

 No.

 I mean, frankly, at first, when I first heard it

 and came across it,

 I thought it was a thing that kids did

 where, I don’t know, everyone wanted to be six foot seven.

 Six, seven.

 Oh, I see.

 I thought it was something along those lines.

 Yeah.

 Like how tall are you?

 Six, seven.

 Right.

 Kind of thing.

 I don’t know.

 But I don’t know if it’s that.

 I don’t know if it comes from there.

 It’s just,

 but no one can actually put their finger on what it means.

 Anyway.

 So that’s because Zahabia had to say it a couple of times

 on Gardeners’ World.

 I heard it and I did think,

 are you doing this on purpose?

 Did you?

 So you picked up on it.

 I would never have picked up on it.

 My hands are this far away from doing it.

 I was about to go, no, Sweetpea.

 Do not do it.

 Don’t do it.

 Do not do it.

 Well, one really quick thing on Zahabia,

 which I thought this kind of gives a good idea

 of what Zahabia and her mother are about.

 I found this thing called The Real Princesses of Yorkshire.

 It’s a photography project.

 And it says, playing with stereotypes,

 celebrating people.

 And then there’s this photo of Zahabia

 quite a while ago.

 There’s her and three friends,

 and three of her friends are all wearing princess dresses.

 And Zahabia isn’t,

 but she’s got some pink fluffy stuff on her.

 But otherwise I think she’s just in shorts

 and like converse or something,

 looking like she does on the show, you know,

 quite tomboyish.

 And then the title of it is,

 Our Dreams Are Way Bigger Than These Dresses.

 And then it’s got the names of all the different princesses

 and Zahabia Naveed is there.

 And then it says,

 the sentiment here should be very clear.

 Girls are more than princesses,

 more than pretty,

 more than whatever limiting stereotype we throw at them.

 And then this gives you an idea of her mother.

 Zahabia’s mum, Kauser,

 wrote to her daughter’s school about this project,

 exclaiming,

 I feel this event and project resonates

 with the school’s ethos

 about girls achieving their potential

 and challenging stereotypes.

 So she-

 Really cool.

 Clearly it’s from this family, you know,

 who are just like, just-

 Go get them.

 Go get them.

 Drop all the princessy stuff.

 Smash it out the car.

 Don’t conform.

 Just do what you’ve got to do.

 Be you.

 I love it.

 Be you.

 Then we’re back with Frances again.

 And I say again,

 like she’s just popping up annoyingly in this program.

 I didn’t think that.

 No, I didn’t either.

 But she talks about how there’s a walnut tree

 in this particular allotment

 and how trees aren’t usually allowed

 to be planted on allotments.

 Yeah.

 Which is interesting.

 But they can on this Exmouth plot.

 They can.

 And I think probably with the changing climates,

 I would have thought more and more allotments

 are going to allow trees, surely.

 Yeah, exactly.

 The last thing you want is just one big open space,

 which is directly under the sun.

 Exactly.

 So anyways,

 and then she also goes over to the mini plots

 where students are able to come and grow veg

 and practice and all learn together.

 This is at the veg school.

 And in this segment, Frances is with Joy Simpson,

 isn’t she?

 Who’s the main teacher of that.

 Yeah, exactly.

 And so they talk a bit about all the different veg

 that they grow.

 They all grow the same veg

 and then they’ll see how it varies

 and how they look after it differently.

 And so therefore what you’re able to cultivate from it.

 So they talk about runner beans and door French beans.

 And then finally, they also talk about how it’s really important

 to teach about composting and specifically wood chip compost.

 And also they were kind of doing controlled experiments,

 weren’t they?

 So they were seeing what works, what doesn’t work.

 So there were those runner beans.

 And the only difference between the two runner beans

 was that Joy was watering one of them on a regular basis

 and not the other one.

 And what they found was the one that got lots of water

 and got lots of beans.

 Yeah, exactly.

 So just the pretty simple thing of gardening.

 More water, more beans, really.

 Veg really just likes a lot of feed and water

 and all that stuff, really.

 And what did you think of the composting process?

 Very, very cool with all the pipes that go into it.

 That’s just generally to allow air all the way down.

 Holy pipes.

 Holy pipes.

 So that just allows the air in there.

 And then once they take those out very carefully,

 then they put in all the worms from Joy’s wormery.

 And then they break it down

 and then you can add it to your beds.

 Lovely.

 And then we catch up with Joe Swift.

 He’s up to Manchester to help de-Graft Mensah on his plot.

 And De-Graft, as we mentioned last week,

 was I think it was Malvern, wasn’t it?

 When he was judging the wheelbarrows.

 He’s the news round news reader.

 Yes, exactly.

 So it was really cool to come back to him.

 First of all, I thought he was just the loveliest person.

 He had such a nice way about him.

 Yeah, very much so.

 I mean, I haven’t really come across him.

 I guess if you were…

 No, I haven’t.

 You’ve never been that age of watching news round

 when he’s been the presenter on it.

 No, never.

 So our paths have never crossed,

 but I’m really enjoying our paths crossing now.

 He’s a delight, isn’t he?

 Yeah, he’s really, really lovely.

 And so he has this fairly substantial plot,

 but he just generally, it was so overgrown.

 So many things were just, it was in a bad state.

 So the poor guy had to really dig into it.

 He’s had it about 18 months now, hasn’t he?

 Yeah, which isn’t long at all, frankly.

 So Joe is just really going over there to hand him,

 lend him a hand with the work.

 So there was that neglected red current bush

 with lots of old netting caught up in it,

 which of course is a hazard for wildlife.

 So they set about with scissors, cutting that back.

 And then they do some pruning off the bush.

 Joe mentions it’s the wrong time of year

 really to be pruning a fruit bush,

 but it’s a job that needs to be done.

 And if now’s the only time you can do it,

 then you get on and do it.

 They both seem to get off on the sound

 of the ripping netting at one point.

 I really, I don’t know what was going on there

 with those boys, but it was making them very happy.

 And then De-Graft explains how some kids

 are growing veg online.

 Yes, I’ve seen this.

 We’ve mentioned it in a No Way News many, many months ago,

 possibly a year or so ago.

 It’s kind of like a Minecraft type thing,

 but we’re growing veg.

 And that they didn’t realize you can actually

 go and do it for real.

 Which is mad.

 De-Graft is, he’s sort of documenting his journey,

 for want of a better word, with his plot.

 So he’s hoping that will get the kids more involved

 and just educating them really

 that you can actually go and do it for yourselves.

 And then he says how it’s mega important

 that they understand where their fruit and veg comes from.

 But I think that’s the case with all food.

 I think it’s really important where your chicken comes from,

 your lamb, your beef.

 Your eggs.

 But to also understand the process

 of what’s happening to your meat.

 How it’s coming and ending up all cling film wrapped

 on your supermarket shelf.

 Yeah, exactly.

 I think it’s also really important

 to make it less of a kind of,

 oh, it’s all about science

 and making sure that this does this

 and that does that and everything.

 Because I think that for kids is just like,

 oh, well, I’m not going to want to do something sciencey.

 I’ll do that at school.

 Thank you very much.

 Yes.

 If you just make it like a fun activity

 because that is what it is at the end of the day.

 Absolutely.

 Then it will be great fun

 and they’ll get right into it.

 I agree with you.

 And you hear Joe Swift saying,

 look, I’ve been at it for 40 years

 and I’m still learning stuff all the time.

 Hell yeah.

 It truly is a case of,

 you can hear all the theory,

 you can read all the theory,

 but it’s not until you get stuck in,

 you find out what works for your area and for you.

 And you’ll be tweaking it year on year.

 What works for the climate at that time as well

 is all the considerations, isn’t it?

 Yes.

 You’ve just got to give it a go,

 haven’t you?

 Suck it and see.

 Yeah, absolutely.

 And one of the things I really loved

 and which is why I’d love Joe to come over to ours

 is Joe brought to De-Graft

 a whole load of plants.

 He did.

 Like, come on now.

 That was really, really nice of him.

 Gorgeous plants.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Not just any plants,

 not just like some potatoes or whatever.

 I mean, that would be really weird

 if you just bought him some shitted potatoes.

 Here you go.

 Well, that would be all right, though.

 I mean, it would be cool,

 but it’s not as pretty as a really nice plant.

 Well, say which plants then.

 Okay, so thank you.

 We had the Malabar spinach, first of all,

 amazing colours, burgundy and green.

 Well, wasn’t De=Graft already growing that one, I think?

 I think that’s one he already had in the ground.

 Oh, I’m so sorry.

 He was saying he grew up in a Ghanaian household,

 so a lot of their dishes are very sort of tomato heavy,

 and he was growing this Malabar spinach,

 which looked absolutely,

 it was a really pretty looking plant, wasn’t it?

 I’ve never seen one like that.

 Yeah, I completely mixed up my notes.

 That was hit his.

 That was DeGraft’s already.

 And then what did Joe bring?

 So Joe brought the Kale Taunton Dean.

 Yes.

 That was the perennial kale.

 This is the one I’d really like to get.

 Yes, you can just pick, pick, pick, pick, pick constantly.

 And you just shove it in the ground,

 and because it’s perennial, it just stays.

 It’s a fantastic plant.

 I keep referring to Mandy Barber,

 but on her chit chat,

 didn’t she have that as one of her boundary plants,

 because she said it can make a really nice hedge,

 because it grows very tall.

 So she was imagining having a lot of them

 creating this kind of boundary.

 Yeah, exactly.

 I don’t know which variety she specifically used,

 but it was definitely a perennial kale, for sure.

 He then also brought over some sea beet.

 I’ve never, ever heard of sea beet before.

 Have you?

 Nope.

 Not even slightly.

 And apparently that’s a kind of wild spinach perennial.

 Yeah.

 So it was just plucking the leaves as per usual,

 really, really nice leafy green.

 And then finally some lettuces as well.

 Yeah.

 To put it all around.

 Very nice.

 Frances is still at the allotments in Exmouth,

 and she’s made her way over to Candice Hotshorn’s patch.

 That’s Candice and her dog, Lyra.

 Yes.

 And Frances is helping with some hazel stakes.

 Once again, there seems to be a supply

 of long straight pieces of hazel.

 Where are you getting it?

 Where is it all coming from?

 Come on now.

 And Candice has had a plot for three years

 with a polytunnel,

 and she has a tayberry that’s needing support.

 So they are kind of weaving the hazel, aren’t they?

 It’s like how we did our compost heap base

 back when we had lockdown and we couldn’t get any wood to make them.

 So I sort of wattled the walls of the compost base.

 Of course, they rotted really, really quickly,

 but they lasted for the length of all the lockdowns.

 And they were pretty for about five months

 before they started rusting.

 They were pretty for about five months,

 and they looked absolutely awful.

 Bits stuck out and would jab you in the hip as you walked past.

 Yeah, but otherwise it was great.

 It was absolutely great.

 Do you know what a tayberry is, by the way?

 I do.

 Do you know what a tayberry is?

 I didn’t particularly.

 I’ve heard of it before, but I didn’t know exactly what it was.

 So just a quick fact about it.

 It’s a cross between a blackberry and a red raspberry,

 and it’s named after the River Tay in Scotland.

 Oh, I didn’t know that bit.

 Cool.

 The fruit is sweeter, much larger,

 and more aromatic than that of loganberry,

 and that is a cross between a blackberry and a red raspberry.

 Oh, wait, a loganberry is a cross, is it?

 Yeah, it’s the same cross, but just different.

 Oh, I didn’t know that,

 because I grew up with loganberries that your granddad had,

 and I didn’t like them because they’re very, very tart.

 Yes.

 The raspberry is always lovely,

 and then the loganberry is just like, ooh.

 Raspberries.

 Oh, my gosh.

 By the way, if anyone wants to write in,

 has anyone tried the true fruit raspberries coated in dark chocolate?

 If anyone has, please write in, tell me what you think about them,

 because I think they’re absolutely fantastic.

 I did actually see an advert for those the other day,

 because I remember you telling me about them,

 and then the next thing I’m seeing ads.

 Of course, obviously.

 Oh, that’s because the laptop’s listening to you,

 but it was actually on TV, the TV ads.

 Oh, cool.

 Interesting.

 I don’t think our TV’s listening to us.

 Yeah.

 Or ITV Channel 4 is listening to us.

 That would be creepy.

 Anyway, whilst we’re on this section, some fun facts about Candice.

 She’s a yoga instructor, fitness instructor,

 personal trainer, and exercise referral instructor.

 So, cool.

 She knows about the body then.

 Good hands with Candice.

 Yes.

 And also finally, just a top takeaway from this is bend the plant,

 the stems of the plant.

 Once you cut it back and you’ve got the nice stems,

 the new shoots, which are going to produce fruit for next year,

 bend the plant because that creates hormonal stress,

 and that makes you have a better crop.

 More fruit.

 And so that goes back to my point of saying that this summer

 we’ve had a phenomenal amount of fruit from the pear,

 not the apple, but all the plum trees.

 Yeah.

 What else? Grapes, figs.

 Raspberry bush, frankly, has been really good.

 That’s been pretty good.

 But we’ve had loads of fruit from those trees.

 And I did say, could it be because of stress?

 I mean, I was slightly darker about it

 and said that they were probably going to die.

 They were just doing their final flourish before they died.

 You definitely didn’t say it.

 It could be because of stress.

 You said it more like, it could be because of stress.

 They’re going to die.

 They’re going to die.

 Yeah, white shadow, shadow, shadow.

 Anyways.

 Anyways.

 We then go oop north to Chloe Tale in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

 And she’s on her 12 meter by eight meter half plot.

 Yes, where she grows everything from veg to flowers.

 And she’s really all about companion planting.

 Whether that’s to help the plant or to help her

 just generally make it all look good.

 She’s about polycultures.

 Polyculture, boom, smashed it.

 This is what it’s all about.

 I am never looking back from polyculture.

 I will never go monoculture again.

 No.

 I’m all about the poly.

 Now for Chloe, the biggest shock when she started on her allotment was what?

 All about poly.

 There’s something about, no, there’s something about Mary.

 There is that one with Jennifer Aniston.

 Along came poly or something like that.

 Oh my gosh, it is that.

 Anyways.

 This isn’t about poly, this is about Chloe.

 She was shocked at how many pests there were.

 She thought it would be slugs, but it’s also birds that are the issue.

 The old brassica, a massacre because of the pigeons.

 We heard about that being a problem.

 But Chloe’s cabbages looked incredible, didn’t they?

 They did.

 I saw the most mental pigeon actually the other day.

 Did you?

 Sorry, I have to tell you this.

 It was mental.

 It was at the train station and it looked like it had been shot,

 brought back to life, dissected, re-put back together.

 I just looked at it whilst I was eating my sandwich and I was just like,

 I’m so sorry.

 And it just looked at me and went, I’m fine.

 I’m absolutely fine.

 City pigeons do often look like they’ve been shot and put back together again.

 I remember there was a local pigeon that was one-legged

 and it would just hop around the tables in town trying to get food,

 sympathy and food from people.

 They’re not particularly great, city pigeons,

 but wood pigeons and your country pigeon are not so bad.

 Anyway, back to Chloe’s cabbages.

 She has these beautiful cabbages.

 She has been planting them with a variety of others.

 Yes.

 What else does she have in her polyculture for the cabbages?

 Well, the cabbages, first of all, she also has kale and cauliflower

 all together and then she has nasturtiums all around

 and also onions as well because they’ve got the really strong smell

 and the cabbage white butterfly can’t smell it so well

 so they kind of can’t get to the brassicas.

 They can’t find the brassicas first of all.

 And also a nasturtium is kind of your sacrificial lamb, isn’t it?

 And so the cabbage whites tend to eat the nasturtiums rather than the cabbage.

 Yeah, they land on that and want to just genuinely stay on that more.

 Nibble that.

 And she also then has another polyculture

 which sounds very similar to our one of our tomato beds.

 Yeah, so similar.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Multiple varieties of basil which she creates amazing pestos with

 and also mixes in little carrot tops,

 the young carrot tops which are really nice to have in there.

 But anyways, in that polyculture she also has French marigolds,

 chives and calendula.

 So lots of flowery things and then lots of green things as well.

 Yeah, and then she talks about the structure of her site.

 So she used to have really wide sort of short fat beds

 but she couldn’t reach the middle all that well

 and now she’s redesigned it and she has longer thinner beds

 and that’s a lot more practical for getting around.

 Yeah, because she said even though you think,

 oh, create huge whopping beds because you can cram more in,

 mate, you’re not going to want to dig your way through,

 get to the middle of the bed, it’s impossible.

 I also liked that she was planting in the ground

 and not having raised beds which is sort of more traditional,

 isn’t it, is to build your raised bed.

 Yeah, that’s very hip and now is the raised beds.

 Raised beds is hip and now.

 Raised beds is hip and now.

 You sure about that?

 Yes.

 I think they’ve been happening for quite a while.

 It’s hip and now.

 And a final thing that Chloe mentions is the succession sowing.

 She says she grows small sort of pockets

 of lots of different types of food

 so that she’s got a continual supply of things.

 And she also, her sort of top tip in terms of which veg to grow

 as far as she’s concerned is beetroot.

 She’s into fitness and health.

 And she said that beetroot is very good

 for helping with exercise recovery and performance.

 Good for juicing, can be a bit earthy.

 Very, like matcha.

 We’re all about the beetroot, aren’t we?

 I absolutely love a beetroot.

 She also says about putting it in cakes.

 We’ve done that as well.

 It’s very nice.

 Cookies.

 Cookies.

 It’s a beautiful vegetable.

 It’s one of my favourites.

 And as we know, very, very, very good for blood pressure.

 Really does a lot to lower blood pressure.

 For ladies like you.

For anyone, Sweetpea.

 If you listen to our chit chat with Mags and Mon,

 Mags is a nurse and she had a friend or another,

 yeah, I think it was a friend, wasn’t it?

 He was suffering with high blood pressure.

 She gave him loads of beetroot.

 And within a very short amount of time,

 his blood pressure dropped right down.

 Shot down.

 Yeah.

 Good stuff.

 Zero blood pressure.

 Well, Chloe is called Wildly Chloe on Instagram.

 Cool.

 I’m sure she’s on other things as well.

 Yeah.

 And she’s got 120,000 followers on Instagram

 and she’s a bit of an entrepreneur

 because she does all her sort of influencing

 around allotments on Instagram.

 Also, she works for a natural skincare company,

 but she’s decided to make her own hand cream

 for weathered hands like hers.

 She describes them.

 And her product is going to be called Weathered.

 And so she’s currently launching her own skincare company.

 And so if you go to her Instagram page,

 she’s showing that process of right from the idea

 through what, there’s some posts where she’s going

 to companies with the packaging

 and seeing what they then look like filled up.

 And then she’s going to look at the design of the packaging.

 And so she’s sort of taking it through step by step

 as she’s setting up this business

 to ultimately be selling hand creams.

 That’s a really good idea.

 I love that.

 We head back over to Frances

 and suddenly she’s just sodden.

 She’s got a downpour essentially.

 She’s absolutely soaked, as far as I could tell.

 I don’t know where that all came from

 because previously we saw her, she had no coat on

 and it was sunny, wasn’t it?

 It was absolutely bliss.

 She seems to have to do a lot of filming

 in complete sodden rain

 and she doesn’t ever seem to have a coat with a hood.

 No, she doesn’t have a coat,

 but you can’t film with a hood.

 How are you going to hear direction

 when you’ve got a hood on?

 And also it’s going to be rustling around.

 Your mic’s going to pick that up, isn’t it?

 But what I will say is she’s such a trooper

 because she just gets stuck in.

 Yeah, she’s still planting out

 those purple sprouting broccoli.

 She’s still planting those out.

 She’s still looking very glamorous with it all as well.

 It’s pretty impressive.

 And it is purple sprouting broccoli for Candice.

 Frances explains that brassicas need a lot of nitrogen,

 so it’s good to put them anywhere

 where you’ve pulled out a pea crop, for example,

 because as we know, they are nitrogen fixers.

 Exactly.

 So the bed that the peas have been in.

 In our garden.

 In our garden.

 Yep.

 I’m not talking specifically to you.

 Giving me some instructions here, aren’t you?

 Yes, because I can’t do it myself.

 That’s all cleared out, ready to put in some brassicas.

 Precisely.

 I’m on it.

 Great, thank you.

 Lead it with me.

 And then finally, Frances is putting in some hoops

 and then some netting as well

 because of them pesky pigeons.

 Pesky pigeons.

 Now we go to the Pound Lane site,

 and this is the plot of Tim Winfield

 and he’s really into his natural history.

 He has acquired a plot that’s more of an orchard

 the previous owner had put in a lot of trees.

 Which trees did you see there?

 Apple trees, walnut trees.

 Those are the ones he mentions,

 but then also we do see footage of pear trees,

 plum trees, and another fruity thing.

 I couldn’t make out what it was.

 Like a crab apple or something like that?

 Oh, quince.

 Probably a crab apple.

 Not sure, anyway.

 Tim loves it because it gives him some space for the wildlife

 and what he’s done is he’s put down some plastic sheeting

 to cover the ground, to suppress all the weeds of course,

 but also it gives home to slow worms.

 And then he lifts it up and we see,

 I think we see a frog in there.

 Yep.

 And then also a little baby slow worm.

 Oh my gosh, so lovely.

 And the poor thing is just trying to get along

 and get to the plastic again

 and he keeps pulling it back and back.

 I was going, go run for it slow worm.

 Go run for it, yes, run.

 You little legless lizard thing.

 Poor thing, it’s like,

 how dare you insult me of being a lizard thing.

 They are lizards.

 I thought they were closer to like centipedes or something.

 Oh my gosh.

 Are you being serious?

 Did you just say that?

 How stupid am I?

 Wait, you are taking a legless being

 and suggesting it’s close to a centipede,

 a being known for having multiple legs.

 Oh my gosh, I can’t believe my brain even,

 I’m so sorry.

 I despair.

 Once again, disappointed to me.

 Very, very disappointed.

 Did you mean centipedes?

 Well, I just thought they look pretty similar

 if you were to get rid of all of the centipedes.

 Doubling down on this, aren’t you?

 I’m sorry.

 Let’s just forget that ever, ever happened.

 It looks like a worm.

 You had an out then.

 I had an out.

 No, I meant snake.

 At least snake would be better than centipedes.

 Oh my gosh, that’s what I mean.

 Anyway, so yeah, he has a lot of insect homes as well.

 Yes, he’s done that because they’re on a slope,

 there are some banks that were already there.

 So he’s then popped in some clay with lots of holes in

 and he’s drilled wood for bees and wasps.

 Yeah, exactly.

 And then planted around it as well

 so that it’s slightly hidden

 so that they don’t feel so exposed at the bottom.

 So he’s got lots of plants,

 which seed and flower at different times,

 like bird’s foot trefoil, marjoram, fennel,

 and teasel as well.

 Yeah, which are all great for the insects.

 Yes.

 He says that the red mason bees are in the drilled wood

 and they’re particularly great fruit tree pollinators.

 I didn’t know that.

 It reminded me, I wonder if he’s actually seen

 Martin Dawn’s documentary, My Garden of a Thousand Bees

 because it reminded me very much of his space

 where it’s just entirely built for all the bees.

 But beautiful, really beautiful garden.

 I liked Tim’s little section a lot.

 I could have done with seeing more of it.

 He mentions at the end that he keeps a diary for the bees.

 On his site, he has seen 33 species.

 Well, I’ve found an Instagram page for Tim.

 Great.

 And on there are some of the most beautiful photos

 that he’s taken of various insects

 and the plants that they’re on.

 Oh, you must know Martin.

 Yeah.

 He’s got to.

 I don’t know if Tim is doing it

 on a professional basis like Martin,

 but he’s certainly taking good amateur photos.

 But I’ll put a link to his Instagram

 so you can check those out.

 It’s got a good, I think it’s got

 over a thousand posts on there.

 Cool blimey.

 Or with insects, beautiful.

 Oh, I would love to see that.

 Then we’re back with Frances again

 and she is helping out Bruce.

 We don’t know the last name, just Bruce.

 And she’s helping out with

 cutting back generally the bad foliage

 and the tiny new shoots of the squash plants

 because they’re not going to do anything.

 They’re not going to become squashes too late in the season.

 And then she is also taking off the squash

 because you can tell,

 I didn’t know that this is specifically

 how you were able to tell if a squash was ripe.

 If the squash itself is a kind of normal peachy colour,

 and then also if the stem just above it has gone brown,

 I didn’t know that was the level you had to check.

 And then can you remember where she said

 you needed to cut when you’re cutting off the vine?

 Create a T junction.

 So create that nice little shoot

 because if you cut right on the stalk,

 then rot will just go straight in and it won’t keep.

 And the way she’s keeping it is you put it in a sunny spot

 that’s also dry and you let it cure

 and then you can put it into storage,

 which also has to be obviously dry.

 Yeah, and away from rats.

 Yes, and pigeons.

 And also the other thing that Bruce

 was doing slightly differently with his squashes

 was he had obelisks for them.

 So he was growing them upwards

 and then they were so heavily laden.

 It’s extraordinary how many he had.

 And one of the points that Frances makes is she said

 one plant can get you an awful lot of fruit.

 And I just thought, no,

 one plant got us one fruit this year.

 Why? What are we doing wrong?

 He must be giving them so much feed.

 And also I swear he sticky taped some on

 to make it look that abundant.

 I’ve never seen a plant so abundant with squash.

 It was very impressive.

 And then we go and meet Cain Dingle

 and Rhona Goskirk from Emmerdale.

 At least those are their names on camera.

 Off camera they are Jeff Hordley and Zoe Henry.

 Do you know what Emmerdale is?

 I’m so sorry, I have no clue.

 It’s a soap based around,

 I think it’s Yorkshire based.

 Emmerdale?

 I’ve never watched it.

 I think that’s a fictional place in Yorkshire.

 Okay.

 And it’s sort of set in country village life.

 Firearms and tractors and stuff.

 Wellies.

 I suppose it’s a bit,

 I could be speaking out of town

 because I’ve never watched it

 but I think it’s probably like The Archers

 which is that radio based soap.

 Okay.

 That we talked about in Garden as well a few weeks ago.

 That was for the Chelsea Garden wasn’t it?

 Yes. Okay.

 Yes. Okay.

 I see what you mean

 because I was thinking that Emmerdale was like Chelsea or

 Like Chelsea?

 Made in Chelsea or whatever it’s called.

 I don’t know what these soaps are.

 Oh, I see.

 Oh, you thought it was like a reality?

 Yeah.

 Oh, did you?

 No, it’s a soap.

 It’s a soap, okay.

 It’s not a reality program.

 It’s a soap that’s been around for decades.

 Anyway, these guys met in 1994 at drama school

 and they’re both on Emmerdale the soap.

 But they also have this absolutely stunning allotment

 that they’ve had for 16 years now.

 I know.

 Apparently, neither of them were into gardening

 but their parents were into gardening

 and granddad Stan’s tip was to plant potatoes

 always on an Easter Sunday.

 Which they did and they had a good crop.

 They also had a beautiful compost heap.

 Gorgeous.

 Wasn’t that lovely?

 Compost envy.

 And I like how they said that they manage their plot little and often

 because they’ve got, there isn’t a lot of structure to their job.

 It’s not like a nine to five.

 So they know exactly what the down times are.

 You never quite know where you’re at with a job like that.

 So this little and often approach

 and they might almost be a tag team.

 Yeah.

 So ships passing in the night.

 But whatever they’re doing, they’re doing right

 because it was flourishing from what I could see.

 And it was just abundant with flowers and veg.

 I know.

 We’ll come to the flowers later.

 But first of all, they talk about the polytunnel

 that they have the most incredible space obviously to grow

 as many fruit and veg as possible in there.

 So they had a lot of tomatoes, basil, lettuce, padrons.

 Yeah.

 Then they had the vampire pepper, which is purple.

 And then when it’s ripe, it turns red.

 And then Jeff tries a purple one and it doesn’t do anything.

 No.

 And then he tries the red one and it blows his head off

 and he has to get off camera.

 Yes.

 I think he drank some milk, did he?

 Or was it just water?

 I don’t know how they had milk there.

 I think it was just water.

 So you see him suffering with that.

 He honestly looked like my face

 when I slightly bit the tip of our pepper.

 And then you tried a whole load of it

 and it had zero taste.

 It’s very odd, isn’t it?

 It’s a bit like Russian roulette with our peppers.

 It’s so like Russian roulette.

 Oh my gosh, when I touched my eyes,

 it was, I think I felt hell come to my body.

 Oh yeah, you don’t want to be touching your eyes.

 Why did you do that?

 That’s madness.

 I thought I had washed it off

 and I slightly touched my eye.

 It was excruciating.

 Like I never knew that something could attack me like that.

 Well, it’s a lesson learnt.

 You won’t be doing that again, will you?

 Or will you?

 I’m sure I will.

 The type of person to do something twice, just to check.

 They then show an ex-strawberry bed,

 which is now full of flowers.

 And Geoff was really quite animated

 talking about his flowers, wasn’t he?

 Yeah, he was really, really happy.

 He had, for example, status.

 That’s Limonium sinuatum.

 And that has those beautiful flowers,

 really kind of lavener-y colour.

 And they also, a bit like dried flowers,

 so they do last for a really long time.

 They’re not really lush petals.

 They’re just then more of like a tight

 and more dried up flower, if you know what I mean.

 And then asters as well.

 They’re going to be a great, slightly dryer flower.

 And Helichrysums, which are known as the everlasting flowers.

 Yep.

 Absolutely.

 Yeah, and Geoff did talk about how he finds

 that his flowers are a very calming influence for him.

 He feels at one with nature

 and he loves growing the flowers

 as much as he does growing the veg.

 It was a very sweet moment

 when he was talking about the flowers,

 very sort of sensitive moment.

 Zoe as well, I mean, she describes it

 as a bit of a meditation being in their plot.

 Yeah, exactly.

 And then at the end, Geoff hands her

 this lovely bunch of flowers,

 and she hands him a bowl of tomatoes.

 And then…

 I’d be happy with both.

 Yeah, either or would be great.

 And then Geoff is slicing up the tomatoes,

 putting them on some toast,

 a bit of basil, looked absolutely beautiful.

 And his top tip is never put your tomatoes in the fridge.

 Which we couldn’t agree with more.

 Yeah.

 Well, these guys have got an Instagram account

 specifically for their allotment.

 It seems it’s called Geoff and Zoe.

 Very easy to find.

 They’ve got 241,000 followers on it.

 Of course.

 Finally, we’re back with Frances

 at the Exmouth allotments,

 and she’s still earning her keep.

 She’s cutting back some comfrey.

 And she likes a water harvesting setup

 on one of the sheds at the allotments,

 which has like a zinc water butt raised up.

 And then there’s an overflow pipe

 that goes from that down to a plastic barrel butt,

 kind of at ground level.

 And that’s got a tap in the bottom

 for your, I don’t know, watering cans.

 But also the zinc water butt

 has got a pipe and tap coming from it

 that hangs over the top of a sink.

 It makes the most perfect place

 for washing your veg in.

 I would really like to get something like that set up.

 It’s just so convenient

 because it’s nice to have a place

 to be watering your veg.

 I also read that with these allotments,

 they’ve got a major rat problem.

 Oh, really?

 So there are lots of rules they have to put in place.

 I mean, a lot that make total sense, common sense,

 just to really try and reduce how many rats they’ve got.

 So it’s things like if you’ve got a plastic compost bin

 that then you need to put some wire mesh around

 so that they can’t just gnaw through the plastic

 and get all comfy in your compost bin.

 Also to kick your bins

 to make them less of an appealing home.

 Don’t put cooked food in to your compost.

 Store your fruit and veg,

 take them off site when you harvest.

 So real problem, and one of the points they make

 is about how there’s obviously all the disease

 that rats carry, one of them being Vars disease,

 which is very nasty, speaking from experience

 of having been on three months worth of antibiotics

 on account of Vars disease.

 Got to be really careful with the hygiene.

 So they do say wash all your veg

 as soon as you harvest them and just be really aware.

 Don’t just pick your veg and eat them,

 which is a shame

 because it’s one of the nicest things to do.

 Exactly.

 I never thought that rats would be such a problem.

 No.

 But I guess you can still be peeling up, say root veg

 and brushing off the dirt off a carrot,

 and you can eat that.

 The things that are sitting on top of the ground, really.

 It’s not so great.

 Anyway, so I loved that water harvesting system.

 And then the other thing that I absolutely loved

 was the comfrey tea downpipe.

 So you put a vertical drainpipe

 attached to the side of the shed.

 You put the leaves in at the top,

 push them down with a bamboo cane,

 and then you put a stone on top to weigh them down.

 And at the bottom,

 there’s kind of a funnel made from an old water bottle

 that funnels it into another bottle.

 And that’s where then the tea drips down.

 And then that is very, very, very concentrated.

 So you only need one capful into a watering can.

 Amazing stuff.

 Like that is going to be so pungent

 compared to the watered down stuff that you create at home.

 What a great idea, though.

 I would like to get that set up in the back of our greenhouse.

 Could do very, very easily, I think.

 And then at the end,

 they’re all getting together at the allotments.

 And we see someone with a marrow in a barrow

 to share this huge, great thing.

 He said he’s not sharing it.

 He’s coming to share it.

 There were some cream teas as well.

 And then just lots of people hanging out together.

 All milling around.

 And it wasn’t raining either.

 Exactly. It was really nice.

 So I really enjoyed this episode.

 I thought it was a lovely episode, wasn’t it?

 Yeah, it was cheerful.

 It was positive.

 Some really great characters.

 Yes.

 It’s lovely seeing that sense of community.

 You know, we talked the other week about

 how you can find house plant sale clubs.

 Yes.

 Facebook groups.

 And then I mentioned the Dungeons and Dragons, whatever.

 But, you know, for you, Sweety,

 when you get to buying your first home eventually,

 you’ll be starting on the bottom rung of the property ladder.

 The chances of you having enough garden

 to have a veg plot are quite slim.

 If you could get on the list for an allotment,

 you would then immediately have this community

 that you’d be a part of.

 And it would be a very sort of safe, wholesome haven

 to retreat to when things might be getting tough or whatever.

 Yeah, I know what you mean.

 I think they’re just a wonderful, wonderful thing, allotments.

 Yeah, I completely agree on that front.

 Well, we have no jobs for the weekend.

 No, chill.

 So we’ll go straight to favourite plant.

 Sunbathe.

 Sunbathe.

 Is that what you’re going to do?

 No.

 Revise.

 Yes.

 You’re going to revise.

 Yeah.

 I’m going to…

 What job have I got to do next?

 Have you got to do a job or could you chill out?

 I probably need to do something with the previous pee bed.

 Oh, yes.

 And start getting some brassicas in there.

 I did kind of demand you to do that.

 You did.

 So I know what my job is.

 So I’ll be doing that.

 You’ll be revising.

 What’s our third one?

 And hug hobs is probably…

 Hug hobs.

 …should be on there.

 That sounds a good plan.

 Hug the potato.

 I’ll hug hobs for you.

 Thank you.

 Now, tell me your favourite plant from this episode.

 It was the Malabar spinach.

 Yes.

 I have the same thing.

 Okay.

 I will also have the vampire pepper.

 Okay.

 Because I did really like how pretty that was.

 And I like the contrast of the pepper when it goes red and then the rest of the

 plant, which is kind of purple-ish.

 There’s a general purple burgundy vibe to it.

 Yeah.

 Which I really, really like.

 So I’ll take that one.

 You’ll take that.

 I’ll take the Malabar spinach from De-Graft’s place.

 Yes.

 I thought that was beautiful.

 And your top takeaway?

 Top takeaway is just about bending the stem of fruit plants to stress them and to

 get more fruit.

 I didn’t know that that’s how it works specifically.

 So that’s very cool.

 So we need to bend ours and run them along the fence.

 Yes, exactly.

 Yeah.

 What was yours?

 Couldn’t do that.

 Well, mine’s that comfrey tea downpipe, but also the water system at the sink.

 Thought so.

 So I loved those two things.

 I do think the comfrey tea thing would be very, very easy to do.

 Really easy to do.

 Get that set up.

 And cheap to do as well.

 Yeah.

 We could just do that on the back of the greenhouse.

 Yeah.

 I’ve got a spare downpipe.

 Oh, fantastic.

 A thick one.

 Like a wide one.

 But yeah, proper downpipe.

 Oh my gosh.

 This is fantastic.

 Yeah.

 We’ve got some more water bottles.

 It’ll be easy.

 Got a stone on the end of a piece of string.

 Hell yeah.

 Got a bamboo cane.

 Sorted.

 Bosch.

 Right.

 Well, next time on Gardeners World, it is the 25th of September.

 So that is this Friday.

 And here’s what’s coming up.

 Autumn is in the air at Longmeadow and with cooler and wetter days ahead, Monty

 is lifting plants to protect them during the winter months.

 He is also checking on the cuttings that will help shape next year’s garden.

 Looking ahead, he plants up colourful autumn bulbs in containers and keeps a

 watchful eye on his ripening pumpkins.

 Carol Klein reveals the results of her border experiment,

 demonstrating how it’s possible to grow flowers and edibles side by side

 in a single small plot, avoiding a compromise on taste and beauty.

 Frances Tophill meets plantsman James Hichmo in his private garden

 in Somerset to learn more about how he is developing a planting

 palette for a changing climate.

 That’ll be very interesting.

 There’s a secret urban garden in Bristol bursting with bold planting

 and vibrant colour, plus a remarkable community group whose thriving

 garden is helping cultivate connections, confidence and friendship in Sheffield.

 Gosh, a lot on.

 Sounds very good.

 A lot on. I’m looking forward to hearing about James Hichmo’s,

 his planting for the changing climate.

 Yeah, that’s always interesting.

 I want to learn more and more about that.

 I also love it when they go to Sheffield because there seems to be such

 a good sort of horticultural scene up there.

 There does, doesn’t there?

 Yeah, it makes it very inviting.

 Like it really appeals to me living up there.

 Oh.

 On account of the sort of horticultural scene, as they say.

 Oh, interesting.

 Interesting. Maybe one day I shall end up there. Who knows?

 Very nice.

 Well, if you want to get in touch with us about anything we’ve talked about.

 Hell yeah.

 Please do so. You can do that through our website, which is

 notjustdegarden.co.uk

 You go to the contacts page or you can email us at

 Get ready. Hello! At notjustdegarden.co.uk

 Translated hello@notjustdegarden.co.uk

 Very sultry.

 But also head to our website at notjustdegarden.co.uk

 And subscribe if you want to get Sweetpea’s plant lists.

 We’ll have another one for this week.

 That goes on the web.

 That will come out to you as a subscriber.

 And then also we have a page dedicated to this episode,

 which will have all the links to all the people we talked about

 and any other bits and pieces that we’ve covered.

 Exactly. And a quick forewarning about the plant list this week.

 There is a lot of lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, basil.

 A lot of veg, which is what we like to hear.

 What are you off to do now, Sweetpea?

 I’m going to have some supper.

 Okay, that sounds like a good idea.

 Simple and good.

 And I’m going to have a shower and then I’m going to revise

 and then I’m going to bed.

 Sounds like a good plan.

 Yes.

 Well, have a lovely evening.

 Thank you very much.

 Thank you for listening.

 And we shall see you next week.

 Bye bye, Sweetpea.

 Bye Mummy Bear.