Grow Your Own At Home With Alan Titchmarsh Episode 6

Grow Your Own At Home With Alan Titchmarsh Episode 6

In the final episode of Grow Your Own At Home it is time to see all the hard work of the previous 5 episodes and to add a few finishing touches to the gardens.

Alan Titchmarsh has been sharing his garden in Hampshire with us, aided by his wife Alison AKA  Mrs T, chief Camera Operator.

The Love Your Garden Team of David Domoney, Katie Rushworth and Frances Tophill have also been letting us join them in their homes and gardens to see how they can grow more at home during the Covid-19 Lockdown.


Alan Titchmarsh

Alan says its been 8 weeks since he and Alison started working on the Veg Patch and everything is just flourishing.

He has carrots ready to pull, he is picking them small so they are more tender and that's how they prefer them.

Its still not too late to sow carrots even in July and you can eat them in September (or over Winter them).

carrots

Alan likes his carrots buttered with Basil.


Progress on the Runner Bean wigwam they are winding up it nicely now and the variety is Scarlet Runner which now has some scarlet flowers.

Runner Bean

The beans will grow in clusters and again pick them young and this will encourage more to grow.


The Stepover Apple Trees he planted in Episode 4 have plenty of fruit growing already but you need to thin the fruit if they have not naturally dropped off with the 'June drop' 

Stepover Apple Trees

Alan pinches out the leaf shoots after 3 to 4 leaves to encourage flowering next year.


You can still add some fruit trees to the garden at this time of year but will need to be container grown.

One of his favourites is Dwarf Apricots who can even be grown on your doorstep.

Alan Titchmarsh

Adding Crocks to the bottom of a large pot, he fills it with peat free multi-purpose compost and will need to be situated in a sunny spot.

After soaking the pot, Alan teases out the roots and plants it to the same level and prunes off any stray branches. Apricots should be pruned in the Summer.


In Folkestone, Kent, Frances Tophill has been making an amazing makeover to her small, narrow backyard in the terraced house she shares with her partner.

Frances Tophill

She is also reaping the rewards with her first harvest and her Chilli farm is producing Chillies.


Strawberries are ripening, the fig tree has figs but her vegetables leftovers she was growing in her window box from Episode 5, are not doing so well.


Today she is trying to get even more in the garden by adding some hanging baskets.

Frances Tophill

She puts up the brackets using a drill but she is not planning on using the usual annual flowers seen in most displays.

Frances is doing hers with brightly coloured vegetables.

If you have a full basket it will need lots of feeding and watering.


Beetroot

First in the basket is Beetroot, you can also eat the leaves which are rich in Iron and Calcium.

They need spacing for the beets to grow but the leaves make attractive foliage.

She adds Chard to use a cut and come again leaves.

Several varieties of Kale is added to fill any gaps in the planting, all with different leaves.

hanging basket

To hang over the side she adds Nasturtiums as both the flower and leaves are very tasty.


Frances still manages to squeeze some more plants in by using 'Forest Gardening' with French Climbing Beans up the Fig tree to mimic what happens in a natural forest.

French Beans can be planted at the latest in July and can grow up to 2.5 metres so need the support of a tree or a cane wigwam like Alans.

French Beans

The Beans will not harm the Fig Tree as its an annual and will actually enrich the soil with Nitrogen.


Her final touch to the edible garden is for her dog! A pot of Couch grass will help the dog with their digestion in this grass free space.

Frances Tophill

She adds fairy lights to the garden which in just 8 weeks has been transformed from an empty back yard.

A Chilli Farm, Veg Garden, Orchard all in a small 5 metre long yard. 

Frances Tophill gardenFrances Tophill garden

Frances Tophill gardenFrances Tophill garden


Frances Tophill

Frances ends with saying that  'It's the garden that I always wanted '.


Alan veg patch is full so he is using wooden planters to add some Pollinators to make a new border to frame it.

Alan Titchmarsh planters

He has bought some wooden troughs that already have drainage holes and lining.

To add some structure as well as scent, he is adding Topiarised Bay Trees which are good to have in a kitchen garden for culinary purposes.

As an evergreen plant they keep the garden looking green throughout the Winter months.

Alan Titchmarsh planters

The troughs are only 30cm wide but the Bay has shallow roots so will be happy in them.

Alan adds 1 to each end trough and then 2 either end of the middle trough.

The last clipping should be in September but can be trimmed throughout the growing season up until then.

planters

For colour to the beds Alan adds pastel coloured Perennials like Scabious 'Butterfly Blue', Salvia 'Velocity Blue' which will all attract pollinators to the Veg Patch.


In Stratford Upon Avon David Domoney is at home with his partner Adele Holdsworth and their 3 children Alice, Abigail and Lance and are expanding their vegetable growing.

The Vegetable patch in their huge garden is already producing lots to feed the growing family.

David Domoney and Family


David has always wanted to have a go at growing Giant Vegetables and today is the day he gets his dream.

Competitive Giant Vegetable growers spend months nurturing and caring for their scale busting Vegetables all ready for that all important Show.

David Domoney and Kevin Fortey

David video calls Kevin Fortey a grower of Giant Veg who last year grew a record 53lb beetroot.

First tip is to get some good specialist seeds that have been bred to grow to gigantic proportions.

Giant veg growers

Second tip is to give the plant plenty of space including the roots.

Third tip is add Chicken Manure as it is high in Nitrogen.

David Domoney


David has prepared his growing beds surrounded by wire mesh and adds Chicken Manure pellets that don't smell!

Cabbages can grow to monstrous sizes and can be planted now to harvest in September.

Cabbage

The variety he is planting is Robinson's Giant and he plants them 30cm apart, fitting 4 into his bed.

His other choice is Leeks and the variety is Mammoth Blanch, he plants these and in 3 weeks will add some pipe around them to ensure they grow nice and tall but also very white.

Cabbage

Finally a giant Cabbage from Kevin that was planted in January has been given to David due to the shows being cancelled. It is already a metre wide!


Now David's extension of his vegetable garden is complete.

David Domoney  gardenDavid Domoney  garden
David Domoney  gardenDavid Domoney  garden


He has added planters outside the greenhouse, raised beds, allotment winter beds, an orchard, cold frames, Barbeque planters and now giant vegetables.

As the children measure themselves against the giant cabbage and pick peas David says how great it has been doing all this as a family.

David Domoney  garden

And the name for the cabbage.... Alan.


In Balidon, Yorkshire Katie Rushworth and her husband Andrew Edwards and family have been adding more planting to their stunning home and garden.

Katie Rushworth

Each week Katie has been squeezing herbs, vegetables and flowers into her home and garden and finding new ways to make it still look attractive and practical.


She still has 1 area of the garden she wants to add vegetables to and that is her small patio.

She has some galvanised off the ground containers to surround the seating area.

Katie Rushworth

She is going to grow salad crops in them. In a low galvanised metal trough she adds Spring Onions and cut and come again salad leaves.

Next she has some American Land Cress that tastes the same as Water Cress but does not need to be grown in running water.

In the galvanised container on legs she plants lemon Thyme in some gritty compost.

Katie Rushworth

In another raised pot she plants Tarragon and Marjoram.

In the final container she plants a member of the mint family called Hyssop which grows to 60cm and has a floral taste.


Next some flowers and to add colour and scent she picks a Rose called Golden Celebration and it smells amazing.

Rose

They will flower all summer with regular deadheading and need the top layer of soil replacing regularly as they need lots of nutrients.

To add even more fragrance to the planter she adds Lavender.

Katie Rushworth Garden

She arranges the planters all around her seating area and it is complete.

Katie Rushworth Garden

Katie Rushworth GardenKatie Rushworth GardenKatie Rushworth Garden

 Katie has added Herb and Gin crates to the kitchen, Corten steel planters with vegetables, Living wall planters, Hydroponic growing system to the house and even more vegetable and flower planters. 

Katie Rushworth and Andrew Edwards

Her favourite are the Corten steel planters and she has been converted to grow her own fruit and veg at home


Alan ends the show talking about the strange Summer due to the Lockdown, especially as Alison has now had to become an experienced Camera Operator, filming Alan growing his own at home.

'There no thrill like it, from this fork to the fork in the kitchen'.

Alan Titchmarsh

Whatever size garden you have or even if its just a window box or container, growing and eating your own vegetables 'not only feeds the body, it feeds the soul as well'.


All Photographs are Copyright of ITV.com



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