A series of 13 films in which a walled garden is restored and worked as it was
100 years ago.
Presented by Peter Thoday with Head Gardener Harry Dodson 8: July
The soft fruit is ready for picking - morello cherries and black, red and white currants, red and yellow raspberries. Gooseberries, too, are ripening fast. Peter visits Goostrey in Cheshire where the extraordinary Victorian tradition survives of pitting one gooseberry against another to find the heaviest. Harry feeds his plants with homemade liquid manure, and sprays the trees with 'Bordeaux Mixture' - a fungicide discovered by accident in the vineyards of France. Peter tells the story of the Victorian craze for bedding plants, which one writer described as 'those hideous miles of scarlet geraniums'.
Photography PAUL MORRIS Music by PAUL READE
Film editor CHRIS ORRELL
Associate producer JENNIFER DAVIES Producer KEITH SHEATHER BBC Bristol
* CEEFAX SUBTITLES