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Making the first programme of a new series of Beechgrove Garden is always a bit of a stew. We have been 'off air' since last September and there is so much that has happened since then. Add to that, we now have 5 presenters who all need to show face at the start, no matter how brief! On the appointed day there were 4 in the garden - Carole Baxter, Lesley Watson, George Anderson and meself! The missing contributor Carolyn Spray did make an appearance because she was the lucky one to go to on the Fife coast in late February to film a little bit of the 'Snowdrops by Starlight' festival, shown as an insert to Programme 1.

Beechgrove presenters, L-R: Jim McColl, Lesley Watson, George Anderson, Carole Baxter

Programme 2 goes out at 7.30pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One Scotland on Monday 11 April (tonight). There are two of us in the garden with contributions from the other two by way of inserts.

As I have probably mentioned before, as we finish the winter cultivations on our vegetable plots, we cover them over with heavy polythene to keep the soil from being wetted again and again simply because we want to get our seeds and plants in at the optimum time, giving ourselves the chance to produce optimum yields. Soil conditions can be fine enough to achieve a decent tilth but soil temperature has to be in the region of 7degC for the first sowings to germinate as expected. Another good reason for trying to keep the soil a bit dry. As it happens the temperature was up to 10 deg C about 10cm down, under the covers.

planting tatties

The crop I was anxious to get started were the early potatoes. They have been chitting away in the glasshouse for the past 6 weeks and have fine, short sturdy sprouts on them. Since they are being planted with a 5 - 7 cms of soil on top of them and covered over with the thick polythene, they will be quite snug and protected from these radiation frosts we tend to get at this time. I was able to put in a couple of rows. In this part of the world, the most popular variety is Duke of York. The colour variation Red Duke of York is also popular but others have started to supersede these with supporters of a whole range willing to offer advice! One of our newcomers is Lady Christl but she does carry off seal of approval in the form of an . We shall see how it all pans out.

One of the features of the programme is the 'handy hint' worth about 20/30 seconds of broadcasting time; each of the presenters passes on a seasonal hint. The story behind it will take a bit of telling but I was spraying our roses with garlic extract, something I will be doing on a fortnightly basis throughout the growing season and with a little bit of bravado and gritted teeth, I have suggested that we will also treat our fruit crops with this material.

What's it all about? No 'chemical' pest and disease control materials will be used. The garlic extract whilst doing neither job, applied as a regular foliar spray, will actually build up the plant's own resistance to attack. We shall see but I do know that if you feed too many turnips to cattle, the milk gets tainted! Am I doing the right thing? Never ventured, never gained. Will I treat my own crops at home? Maybe the roses.