Beechgrove Garden

For most of the country it’s waders rather than wellies that are essential kit to get gardening this spring. Beechgrove is back and Jim McColl, Carole Baxter, George Anderson and Chris Beardshaw are raring to go no matter what the weather. In the first programme the team take a look at some soggy, boggy gardens across the country and assess what can be done and they deal with our own new unintended paddling pond, in the Beechgrove Fruit House.

Carole explains how to deal with explosive weeds, Jim is splitting snowdrops and George advises us where to plant a flowering quince.

In the Beechgrove Garden Jim, Carole and George are pruning their way around the garden, through fruit pruning to Carole pruning back a very vigorous eucalyptus. The team show what we could and should be pruning at this time of the year, how to do it and why. It’s also the season for pricking-out and potting-on and George shows how to do just that with his summer sowing of the stunning blue poppy. Chris is at another new build in Portlethen this week. He’s helping the Robertson family transform the soggy turf that the developers left them with into the garden of their dreams. Anna and Andrew Robertson, son Fergus and cats and dogs moved into their new home in Portlethen in May 2013. The Robertsons want Chris to help transform their new plot into both a family space and an efficient, productive garden. Jim is with the all new allotmenteers of Aden Park in Mintlaw. Last year this was a field and now it’s a set up with 42 new allotment sites all just ready to get growing. Jim will track the progress of this new gardening community from the very young to the older and gardening wise; sharing knowledge and experiences and chat with Jim throughout the season.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim continues to deal with the aftermath of the extreme wet weather that we experienced over winter, and reminds us to feed perennials and woody plants, especially those recently planted.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is spring cleaning in the conservatory. He takes note of the progress and care of the camellias and the citrus, and moves on to pot on the stunning houseplants - streptocarpus and saintpaulias. George is commemorating WW1 by sowing a field of Flanders red poppies.

George is revamping the very tired 'old riverbed' in Beechgrove. He is creating a new flowing stream of those spring and autumn shades of blue beauties, gentians, in place of the old and now dry riverbed. George also visits Broadwoodside steading garden in Gifford. This beautifully designed garden manages to look good all year round but in this case George goes to see their imaginative use of spring bulb colour.

It's tomato planting time for Jim in the Beechgrove Garden this week, and Chris tries out a range of climbers for any wall, in any position. Meanwhile, Carole visits Scotland's first tea plantation up on the Perthshire hills, and helps one Aberdeen viewer take control of their mature but overgrown garden.

Jim McColl is sowing hardy annuals direct and comparing it to planting plugs. Carole also visits a garden restoration in the Trossachs. Until recently, Dun Dubh was a hidden Victorian garden. With views and terraces that stretch down to Loch Ard, it is painstakingly being uncovered and brought back to life as a stunning six acre garden.

The Beechgrove team will be taking a break from the garden to be at Gardening Scotland, sometimes called the Chelsea of the north; it is certainly the biggest gardening show north of the border. The cream of British growers will be there, with everything from pansies to pelargoniums, and cacti to clematis in a stunning floral frenzy.

May is out and June is here and in the Beechgrove Garden that means that we can finally have our bedding plants outside and with them, Carole and George create some sizzling summer schemes. A weed is merely a plant in the wrong place as the other old saying goes. In this programme, Chris harnesses the power of plants that are usually considered thugs or weeds to beautifully clothe a difficult piece of sloping ground at Beechgrove.

Jim McColl and George Anderson are planning for tomorrow's jam as Jim is taking care of the fruit cage and George is sorting out the cherries, figs and grapes in the fruit house. Three weeks ago, Carole Baxter sowed some so-called 'rapid salads'. Do we have a delicious salad in 21 days as promised?

Beechgrove and Gardener's Question Time combine to answer gardening questions.

Carole and Chris are checking on the progress of produce in pots and containers, showing that you can be productive no matter how little space you have. Meanwhile Jim and George are in East Haven - a small coastal fishing community near Carnoustie, which is celebrating and commemorating their octocentenary year. A 28-foot fishing boat will form a centrepiece of their new community garden with a 'wave garden' lapping around it. Beechgrove helps them to achieve their goal before the Queen's Baton comes racing through.

It looks like it may finally be time to harvest those tatties. Jim is in the veg plot answering the age-old question, how do you know when they are ready for harvesting? Carole shows us two ways to plant up Alpine troughs. Chris is back with the two new build gardens where he asks both Anna and Susan for three positives and negatives in their garden. Jim also takes a trip down to Logan Botanic Garden which is situated at the south-western tip of Scotland. It is the country's most exotic garden and is famed for its tender collections.

In the Beechgrove Garden, with her fingers crossed, Carole is introducing some agapanthus, those South African blue beauties who like full sun, into the ground in the Beechgrove Seaside Garden. Jim revisits Aden Allotments near Mintlaw. He is following the allotmenteers in their first year of production and now returns for a progress report. Carole visits Rosanna and John Clegg in Aultgowrie Mill, which is an 18th-century converted water mill set in 13 acres of gardens and woodland river walks

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is as cool as a cucumber in the 'cold frames' while Chris is all hot and bothered in his 'hot bed' as they compare and contrast their very different methods of growing melons. Carole and George meanwhile are helping out with the final stages of the creation of a community garden for the enthusiastic folk of Dunlop, East Ayrshire. The community are revamping their old and mostly forgotten municipal park and turning it into an ornamental community green space.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Carole and Jim dally with our extensive dahlia collection, which is now flowering. Jim visits the Havinden family, high in the hills above Aberlour. When Joanne and Nathaniel first moved into their old croft, there was no running water, no electricity and certainly no garden. The family are now ready to have a properly productive garden capable of withstanding elevation and exposure. Jim also visits Terril Dobson at Logie Walled Garden near Kirriemuir. This herbalist's garden features more than 150 herbs. The garden is divided into eight rectangles and includes medicinal herbs for different body systems

Carole and Jim are propagating again. They're trialling a professional grade compost that is available to amateurs and sharing trade secrets on how to get leeks long before seeds usually germinate. Jim demonstrates how to perk up the lawn ready for autumn. George is helping the McIntyre family in Innerwick revitalise their border. George helps them to take control of a steep slope as well as adding much needed colour. Carole is visiting Billy Lowrie's flora-packed, award-winning garden in Balloch. However, it's not just a pretty face and Billy reveals the secrets that keep his garden looking gorgeous.

In the Beechgrove Garden, it's time for the great unveiling of George's show veg. There is certainly nothing parsimonious about the parsnips and nothing leggy about the leeks. Carole visits the new kitchen garden at Scone Palace for one last time this year and it's harvest time. The local children (and new gardeners) learn to reap what they sowed. Jim visits a cleverly designed, plant-packed cottage garden near Forfar.

In the Beechgrove Garden, we are always looking at what's fresh in gardening but this week we are working out ways to keep it fresh. Carole investigates how to store and keep fresh a ton of tomatoes or a mountain of marrows. Meanwhile, Jim prepares the lawn for the winter. George visits the delightfully-named Frostineb garden at Pathhead. Caroline and Henry Gibson have developed this half-acre farmhouse garden over the last 18 years. This is a relaxed garden where plants seed freely, resulting in some interesting plant combinations.

In the Beechgrove Garden, George and head gardener, Jane, carefully unveil the show veg before Jane takes them to compete in the local show. Will they be top bananas or will there be sour grapes? Jim and Carole are helping with the creation of a new community garden - the Wild Wood garden of Glenorchy. Wild by name and nature as the site is a stunning location of natural beauty. The community are not trying to force a cultivated manicured garden on to it but are working with nature to enhance and highlight it.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Carole is right in the midst of autumn as she reviews her pumpkins but will there be enough to make a lantern? Meanwhile Jim is looking forward in a small way to spring by planting a range of miniature bulbs. For our garden visit, Carole is in Bridge of Cally visiting former head gardener of Crathes Castle, Callum Pirnie. His own garden in Bridge of Cally is full of plants worth noting as they are those that worked best at Crathes. Jim visits the new allotmenteers at Aden Country Park near Mintlaw for the last time this year. Around a celebratory allotment barbecue to mark the first year of production Jim catches up with the progress of the group.

All four seasons in one colourful day at Beechgrove, as Jim and Carole take a look at what's colouring up in the Equinox Border and set up a cheerful spring bedding display for next year while Jim checks on the progress of his overwintering veggies. Chris visits his new build families for the last time this year. Far from battening down the hatches for winter, both families are still busy in their new gardens. Jim visits the Fife Flower Show, which is all about growing for showing, where he is surrounded by prize chrysanthemums and dahlias, as well as those big showy show veg.

There is lots of late summer harvesting to do at Beechgrove. Jim McColl is back in the main vegetable plot harvesting fennel, celery and parsnips, while Carole Baxter tackles something different - tomatoes with tomato fruits above ground and potatoes below ground, as well as artichokes and oca, one of the lost crops of the Incas. Carole and Jim also take a look at some autumn colour around the garden and Jim visits Megginch Castle near Perth, where there has been extensive replanting of its orchard and they now have a near-complete collection of heritage Scottish fruit varieties.

In the Beechgrove Garden, this is the perfect time for fruit pruning but for most people it is a complicated subject. Jim goes through the basics and with the phrase 'look twice, cut once' makes it a simple job. Carole and George are helping out with the final stages of a community garden in the Borders. Nestled in a sheltered bay on the Solway Firth, Auchencairn has the best of the Scottish growing conditions. The area was known in the past for smuggling activities and is now a haven for artists. Carole and George help uncover buried treasure in this inspirational new garden.

In the last in the present series, Jim, Carole, Chris and George are in the Beechgrove Garden packing in as many hints, tips and projects to keep us going through the winter and generally battening down the hatches. Carole visits Jan and Robert Kinnaird in their garden at Steadstone near Dalbeattie. Jan and Robert have developed a stunning surprise of a garden. From the front it's a regular house, but round the back the garden is an old quarry. Jan and Robert work with the microclimate and steep walls to create this quarry plant oasis.