麻豆社

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is spring green cleaning and feeding the poor lawn after the wet and ravages of winter.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) trial and publish a list of plants that in their opinion can be given the coveted RHS 'Award of Garden Merit'. The RHS have updated and re-thought the list and Carole and George are putting their tests to the Beechgrove test. Carole will grow a range of the AGM veg in Beechgrove and George will grow the same in his allotment in Edinburgh, and the two will compare. This time Carole has set down the rules of engagement as it seems George may have cheated just a little last year...

Jim and Carole are also setting up another observation. We are often asked what the best plants for ground cover are, so Jim and Carole are trying out a range of creepy, crawly plants that will cover all.

Chris is in Dundee with Anne and George Taylor, who have a new build house with a reasonably large back garden. Anne and George have made a good start by sorting out the hard landscaping and improving the soil but now where do they start with the design on this blank canvas? Chris designs and creates a seating area, and sets them on the road with planting for structure and some annual colour.

Jim visits Parkhead Gardens, Rosneath, where Ian McKellar has spent 40 years restoring an amazing walled garden to an Italianate style, packed full of clipped and topiary box, yew, beech, hornbeam, holly and prunus. Pots and bedding plants complement the evergreens and add splashes of colour to the formality.