Gardeners World episode 3 2020: Join the Gardeners’ World team as they guide you through seasonal highlights from across the country visiting stunning gardens, meeting the gardeners and finding out their secrets of success. And we join Adam Frost in his garden to bring you inspiration for your garden along with all the essential gardening jobs for this weekend.

Gardening show packed with good ideas, tips, advice from experts and timely reminders to get the most out of your garden, whatever its size or type.

Gardeners World episode 3 2020

How to grow hellebores

When choosing a hellebore, most gardeners first think about the flower colour they’d like and then how much care they want to lavish on the plant (many require very little looking after thankfully!). There are many different types of hellebores offering a range of flower colours from white and yellow to pink and purples. All colours can come with degree of decroative spotting inside the flower. The choices available to gardeners can then be divided into the following groups, which need similar growing condition and care.

Helleborus × hybridus, commonly known as Oriental hybrids, are a popular because they are easy to grow. They are very hardy and long-lived. The foliage is bold, dark green and can sometimes veil the flowers. There are named cultivars available, but these are often sold as selections or series – which offer similar habits and flower shapes but vary in flower colour so choose those you like best the sales bench.

To enjoy attractive foliage, as well as flowers, consider growing Helleborus argutifolius, Helleborus × ericsmithii, Helleborus foetidus, Helleborus × nigercors, Helleborus × sternii and their hybrids or cultivars. They usually enjoy position in sun for at least part of the day, but Helleborus foetidus will grow in deeper shade. These tend to be short-lived, but removing of the stems once the flowers fade in spring will encourage new growth.

Garden flooding advice

Few garden plants will survive waterlogging or flooding. Prolonged periods of sitting in soil saturated with water reduces the oxygen available to the roots and causes yellow leaves, root rot and death. However, conditions can be improved using various techniques to promote drainage and prevent damage.

Soils become waterlogged when water is unable to drain away. This leaves no air spaces in the saturated soil, and plant roots literally drown. Waterlogging is common on naturally poorly drained soils or when heavy soils are compacted. Short-lived flash floods after a downpour seldom harm most plants. It is prolonged, saturated soil that cause the most damage as the oxygen is used up by the plant roots and soil microorganisms.

Flooding from overflowing drains can add the complication of sewage and waste water, especially if growing edible crops.

Mulches and mulching

Mulching is generally used to improve the soil around plants, but it also gives your garden a neat, tidy appearance and can reduce the amount of time spent on tasks such as watering and weeding. Mulches help soil retain moisture in summer, prevent weeds from growing and protect the roots of plants in winter.

These break down gradually to release nutrients into the soil and help improve its structure. Layers will need replacing when the material has fully rotted down. Among the best materials are leaf mould, garden compost, spent mushroom compost, wood chippings, processed conifer bark, well rotted manure, straw (for strawberries), spent hops (poisonous if eaten by dogs) and seaweed.

Ornamental grasses

The variations in colour and texture of ornamental grasses provide structure, movement and interest in planting schemes, even in the dead of winter. Usually partnered with late summer perennials, grasses provide a long season of interest. Ornamental grasses are adaptable, reliable plants, easily cultivated in sun or shade with some thriving in both. Although ideally well-drained soils suit these plants, some will grow happily in moist or wet soils.

Training apples & pears as cordons

Cordons allow you to grow a useful amount of fruit in even a small garden. Cordon training is suitable for all apples and pears that bear fruit on short sideshoots (spur-bearing). Cordon training is suitable for all pears and apples that bear fruit on short sideshoots (spur-bearing). The term ‘cordon’ simply refers to a single stem with short sideshoots (the fruiting spurs).

This is usually trained angled to 45 degrees (oblique cordon), but can be trained singly vertically (sold under a variety of names such as Minarette) or horizontally (stepover). Alternatively, they can be trained as multiple vertical ‘U’ or double ‘U’ cordons. Angled (oblique) cordons are more productive and less prone to getting out of hand than vertical cordons. They are trained against a wall, fence or on wires between free-standing posts.

How to grow apples – Gardeners World episode 3 2020

Apples are easy to grow, productive and there are varieties and growth forms for every garden. You can even grow them in containers. They should be valued as a long term investment as they take a few years to crop, but once they start, they will do so for many years.

Apples thrive in a well-drained loam, at least 60cm (2ft) deep. Add well rotted organic matter before planting and mulch and water well through the growing season until the tree is growing well. Shallow soils over chalk are unsuitable for growing all but a very few apples. Dessert apples need good drainage, but culinary apples are more tolerant.

Apples prefer a sheltered, frost-free position in full sun. You can still grow apples in frost prone areas, just choose later-flowering varieties or provide temporary protection in spring when apples are in blossom. Provide artificial or living windbreaks on exposed sites.

Easy salads from seed

Produce your own mixed salads by growing a range of leafy salads and vegetables that can be cut and will then sprout (come) again. Harvesting the young leaves when you need them prevents plants from maturing and ensures several harvests of small, tender, mild-flavoured leaves over a long period of time.

A range of leafy vegetables can be grown as cut and come again, including: Amaranth, basil, beetroot, chicory, coriander, chard, corn salad, dandelion, endive, komatsuma, land cress, leaf celery, lettuce, mizuna, mustard, pak choi, parsley, purslane, radicchio, red kale, rocket, sorrel and spinach.

Crops usually grown for their roots such as beetroot, radish and turnip also have leaves that are tasty when harvested young. Buy vegetable seeds separately or look out for prepared salad seed mixes as this can be more economical.