Gardening with Carol Klein

Carol is now harvesting the first of her carrots and has been dining off an abundance of chard for weeks! A visit to some native foxgloves thriving in a nearby hedgerow reveals the secrets to success with growing these wonderful plants, and kicks off a look at the whole family of plants to which they belong. This includes snapdragons, verbascums and penstemons — some of our most useful garden plants, all well loved by gardeners and insects alike.

The horticultural expert shows viewers how her garden has both a sunny side and a shady one, and takes the opportunity to look at how plants have adapted to one or the other. Carol also gives a useful lesson in choosing plants that will thrive because they've been planted in the right place.

Summer at Glebe Cottage sometimes means changeable weather — sultry, showery and altogether typically British! But this never daunts Carol, who takes the opportunity to investigate one of our richest plant habitats: watery wetlands and bogs. The pond at Glebe Cottage is now lush with rich green foliage. Back in the spring, Carol added plants that would thrive in this shady, boggy area. Now, these are living up to their promise, and none will be more spectacular than the native yellow flag irises she had dug up and moved from elsewhere in the garden. Ubiquitous and easily recognised in the wild, she shows us how it frequents waterways throughout the British Isles. This moves Carol to celebrate the iris family — a group of plants that brings elegance and drama into the garden, from the uncanny hues of ‘Katharine Hodgson', which flowered in the garden in January, to Carol's new planting of bearded iris on her shed roof. Other members of the same family get a look in, including advice on h

The horticultural expert welcomes viewers back to Glebe Cottage garden in north Devon, where, despite the challenging mix of intense hot, dry days and torrential stormy downpours, the garden is showing off a magical sea of flowers and foliage. Carol also discusses geraniums, and presents tips on how to care for pelargoniums.

Carol Klein welcomes us back to Glebe Cottage garden, where the hot summer weather is parching the open, sun-bathed parts of the garden while the shady areas remain enticingly cool. Many gardeners struggle to get to grips with those dusty, exposed, dry areas that never seem to work. But for Carol, these can be rich planting opportunities. She's even created a special raised bed at Glebe Cottage specifically designed to allow her to grow plants that need very open, sun-baked conditions. A quick visit to nearby Exmoor National Park makes the point. Here, amid one of Britain's harshest, most rugged natural environments, grows one of our most familiar and wildlifesustaining plants: gorse. This prickly shrub, festooned in globes of scintillating chrome-yellow, and emitting one of the most delicious plant perfumes ever, is a member of the pea — or legume — family. Back in the garden, Carol plants a less well known, but very beautiful shrub — a lespedeza, which, in spring, will complement her

As summer reaches its climax at Glebe Cottage garden in Devon, Carol Klein introduces us to a group of plants that really provides the drum roll to peak summer time: the daisy. Whether it be the bold, hot colours of heleniums and dahlias, or others, like early flowering asters that display themselves more quietly, daisies thrive in the most surprising spots and mingle brilliantly alongside other summer treasures. There's a daisy to suit all types of conditions. Carol makes a visit to the wild and gorgeous north Devon coast to have a look at one particular wild daisy to find out more about its native roots, and she spots a few other fascinating wild plants that thrive in this dry, exposed and harsh seaside habitat. Among them is the brilliantly named Hottentot fig, with its succulent, flashy leaves and dazzlingly coloured flowers, as well as contrastingly spikey sea hollies. Back in the garden, Carol introduces us to the raised ‘seaside bed' she's constructed to allow her to grow a rang