2021 Season 43

Beechgrove is back in bloom as the team return to Beechgrove’s home turf, and after a year away from the garden, Carole, Brian and head gardener Mairi spring Beechgrove back into growth. After a year apart, Carole and Brian set up neighbouring patches for some healthy competition, while we watch Mairi as she reclaims Beechgrove after its time on furlough in 2020. George is back chopping down trees in his home garden in Joppa, while Kirsty builds a stylish greenhouse on her brand-new ornamental allotment.

It’s time to get sowing on Beechgrove. Kirsty joins Carole and Mairi in the garden as they continue to get growing, while George and Brian have easy-to-grow veg on the mind, and Sophie has stepped up to a brand new gardening challenge. In this episode, Carole and Mairi create a bargain border from scratch, Kirsty creates a recycled birdhouse with its own living roof, Brian and family create some family-friendly, no-dig veg plots in the lawn, and George sows micro-veg, heralding the return of the hanging gardens of Joppa. And familiar face Sophie joins us from her new gardening job at Culzean Castle.

Mairi and Carole give Beechgrove a spring clean, George is down at his allotment, and Kirsty takes a day out at the beach to go searching for seaweed. And Beechgrove introduces The Beechgrowers, a new feature in which six budding gardeners and families make regular appearances throughout the series to share hints and tips from their own gardens.

In this episode, Carole shows how to grow potatoes in recycled containers, while Brian is growing heritage potatoes in the veg plot. Meanwhile, Calum Clunie shares some secrets of award-winning potato growing at his Leven allotment. George is at home in sunny Joppa and shows the progress of his speedy seeds for small spaces, and we catch up with Lucy Dalglish, whose modest Maryhill balcony is overflowing with edible promise this year.

Carole and Mairi set about fixing, feeding and repairing the Beechgrove lawns, while Kirsty creates a new living lawn. Meanwhile, Brian is in his family garden at Old Scone and encouraging us not to mow, or if we do mow, to use a hand-push mower. And Chris Beardshaw provides an update on the projects that he started in his home garden last year, including his attempt to cure the dreaded box blight.

Carole and Mairi are in Beechgrove to show how to create a bluebell wood. They also lay ready-sown turf to create a near-instant carpet of colour. Meanwhile, in sunny Joppa, George shows the happy results of some of his pruning exploits from last year, while Kirsty is back in her allotment creating a cold frame from scratch using recycled bits and pieces. And we return to visit ecologist and passionate environmentalist Kevin Hughes at Caly Gardens to see how the garden and its precious wildlife have survived the winter.

In this episode, Brian reviews the success of Beechgrove’s box-hedging alternatives, while he and Mairi also share some topiary tips. Meanwhile, Calum Clunie continues to let us into the world of show growing as he explains his method for taking his dazzling dahlia cuttings in his Leven allotment. And Beechgrove travels across the Atlantic to the Slate Islands to behold rare blue bamboo, while catching up with the Seil Community Garden, which Beechgrove helped create in 2009.

Beechgrove is hung up on the 3,000-year-old gardening staple - the hanging basket. For a 2021 approach, Kirsty joins Carole and Mairi at Beechgrove as they explore sustainable hanging basket options, including an upcycled bird cage. Meanwhile, Brian shows the next stage of his no-dig, converted lawn at Old Scone, while George Anderson plants pumpkins and provides updates on the progress of his quick crops in small spaces. And we visit the community-run Starbank Park, in Leith, to hear about the community’s renovation of the site, which at this time of the year is snowy with cherry blossoms.

Carole and Mairi get stuck into Beechgrove’s bog and pond areas, while George continues to show us how to garden in small spaces with his summer bedding in pots. Elsewhere, Kirsty gives us a tour of spring’s finest in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, showcasing riveting rhododendrons and majestic meconopsis. And Beechgrove introduces gardener and Indonesian cook Dina Watt, as she uses homegrown produce from her Aberdeenshire garden to create delicious recipes with an Indonesian twist.

Carole and Mairi prove that they are two of the best bargain hunters as they create a new bargain border at Beechgrove for the cost of just a little work. Meanwhile, Calum Clunie is in his Leven allotment growing for upcoming shows and provides an update on his onions. Chris is back at his new allotment in the Cotswolds, where he is growing a range of fruit and veg that he hopes will look after themselves.

Kirsty, Brian and George are all focused on people gardening in smaller spaces. Kirsty plants up a range of trendy containers with plants to attract pollinators while George is growing quick crops in small spaces and shows that his homemade mini frames are now providing a steady supply of edibles. Brian is creating a new easy-to-follow small space alpine feature at home in Old Scone. Beechgrove visits the garden of Alice Stewart in Perth. Alice’s garden is an inspiration to anyone who has a steep slope to contend with as Alice’s garden is all slopes but that hasn’t stopped her creating a stunning garden that at this time of the year is on fire with azaleas.

Carole and Mairi are at Beechgrove showing how to prune and tame overgrown evergreens. Meanwhile, Kirsty is at her Inverleith Park allotment setting up a wormery and is looking forward to a pretty and productive harvest. The Beechgrowers return with further updates in their gardening video diaries from the length and breadth of Scotland, and we visit the garden of Steve Micklewright in Newlands of Tynet, where the surprisingly favourable conditions allow some very special plants to thrive.

Brian and Carole are being neighbourly in Beechgrove as they swap stories over the fence between Brian’s Alpine garden and Carole’s seaside garden. Meanwhile, we find out what difference two months makes to one of the most glorious gardens in Scotland as we catch up with Sophie McKilligan in her new role as gardener at Culzean Castle, in Ayrshire. Calum Clunie is at his Leven allotment as the countdown to the shows that he has entered is ticking.

Carole and Mairi take a look at the progress of the beds of wildflower seeds and turf that they sowed and laid eight weeks ago. Kirsty is also at Beechgrove, where she, Carole and Mairi enjoy a masterclass on the Japanese art of Kokedama (creating Japanese moss balls) with expert Fiona McDonald from Aberdeen. Meanwhile, Brian is at the grounds of Scone Palace dealing with as many of the worst weeds he has. He explains how weeds work and grow, and shows how to deal with the dreaded Himalayan balsam, knotweed and horsetail.

Carole and Mairi are at Beechgrove taking a look at the now-blooming wildflower bank that Chris cleared, weeded and sowed in 2019. Meanwhile, Kirsty is in her pretty and productive allotment, repurposing an old wine box to make into a trendy planter for some of her purple produce. Elsewhere, George is at home in sunny Joppa taking a look at his no-mow meadow and the yellow rattle that he sowed last year, and Chris is at home high up in the Cotswolds, where he shows us the potting shed that he and his wife built over the winter.

The competition between Brian’s heritage veg and Carole’s contemporary veg heats up as Carole is happily harvesting, while Brian seems to have deliberately gone to seed. Meanwhile, Calum shows off the progress of his giant onions, giant tomatoes, giant cabbages and ridiculously long runner beans at his allotment in Leven. And Dina Watt demonstrates the technique of growing vegetables from scraps and how to use the whole vegetable so that there is never any waste.

It’s cherry harvest and cherry-tasting time in both Beechgrove and in sunny Joppa. Also at Beechgrove, Kirsty creates a green talking point for any stylish home by taking a recycled picture frame and creating an easy-to-copy piece of living wall art with succulents. There are two inspirational garden visits this week - inspirational upcycler Lynn Cameron has created a gorgeous garden in Alva out of what others might regard as rubbish, while Ryan Adam has single-handedly built a garden for his new-build home from the rubble that the builders leave behind.

Leven allotmenteer Calum Clunie visits his dream garden - and that happens to be Beechgrove! Meanwhile, Kirsty is with Scottish lavender growers on the banks of Loch Leven, near Kinross. Our garden visit this week is to rural East Lothian, where Jackie and John Fry have worked tirelessly over the past four years to renovate an overgrown, 1.5-acre rural space to create an exquisitely informal garden that complements the landscape around it.

The tattie harvest is in full swing at Beechgrove. From contemporary tatties to heritage tatties to tatties in containers, it’s Beechgrove tattie howking time. From the very tall to the very small, Brian and Carole prove that there is a tree fit for everyone’s garden, and this week they branch out into trees for a small garden. We visit an award-winning garden on a seaside cliff edge in Buckie. Despite their garden’s precarious and exposed position, Elizabeth and Malcolm Schofield have created a colourful plant-filled haven that’s not just for their own enjoyment but for the delight of passers-by.

Carole and Mairi attempt to tame a large clump of exuberant bamboo at Beechgrove while Kirsty creates a fairy garden out of broken terracotta pots, pebbles, moss and a bit of magic. If you want to hide something unsightly or create structure in your garden, Brian takes a look at some of the many options for taller hedging. George is at home in sunny Joppa where he’s thinking ahead and showing how to collect and save seeds from this year’s favourites. Chris is in his new allotment high up in the Cotswolds and he shows what a bountiful harvest he’s been able to have although the allotment is only in its first season.

Carole and Mairi are particularly delighted to welcome gardener and cook Dina Watt to Beechgrove this week, as Dina has promised to cook for Carole and Mairi using Beechgrove’s own produce but adding Dina’s special Indonesian twist. Nestling in the south western tip of Scotland on the Rhins of Galloway is Scotland’s most exotic garden. Kirsty visits Logan Botanic Garden to see how this unique garden manages to be both exotic and yet very Scottish. We also visit the Maxwell Centre, based in the Coldside area of Dundee. This now ten-year-old community garden was once a derelict lot and is now a space to socialise, cook, learn and grow food, situated at the heart of the growing community.

We’re at the height of the harvest at Beechgrove as Brian and Carole find out which has come out on top - heritage or contemporary? It’s show day for Calum as we attend Beechgrove’s very own private veg show, set up in homegrown style in his grandparents’ back garden in Leven, and Lucy Dalgleish provides one final update from her balcony garden in Maryhill, where we discover the success of her growing projects.

The Beechgrove team review some of the successes and failures of 2021’s growing season. Carole takes a look at her 6 x 8 greenhouse and checks whether her chilies are hot enough to handle. In Old Scone, Brian appraises the first year of his new no-dig vegetable plot, and in sunny Joppa, George assesses the hits and misses on his allotment. Meanwhile, Kirsty creates an on-trend and easy-to-replicate teapot terrarium. Growing your own tomatoes successfully is always satisfying. Camilla Fredricksen takes that to a new level as she grows around 200 varieties in her produce-packed garden in Aberlour.

The Beechgrove team are all looking ahead in this bulb special. Carole and Mairi show how to force hyacinths for Christmas, while George naturalises fritillaria bulbs in his lawn and also tries to create the best recipe for ‘lasagna’ layered bulb planting fo the coming spring. From the Murrays in Melvich to Diana in West Linton, the Beechgrowers are back for the final round-up, bringing their own personal gardening video diaries from all across Scotland for the final time this season. And we visit Lynne Chapman’s garden in Cumbernauld. During lockdown last year, Lynne decided to tackle her overgrown and rubbish-filled back yard and turn it into a dream garden for her and new husband David’s wedding venue.

In the final programme of the series, the whole team head to Beechgrove. Carole, George, Brian, Calum and Kirsty help head gardener Mairi prepare for winter and review the progress of the garden’s recovery through 2021. Calum brings some of his prizewinning veg, including his giant cabbage, to show to the group, while George brings his judge's scales and measuring tape to see if there are any record breakers. And Chris provides the final report from his garden high in the Cotswolds and reviews the progress of his new allotment through 2021.