Browse all episodes of The Beechgrove Garden

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

The Beechgrove Garden has only just emerged from the December snow, and the team take stock of the damage done over the severe winter and search for hopeful signs of spring.

Celebrating Scottish gardens. The team mount Project Plant Rescue, Jim and Carole investigate the alternatives to peat, and Lesley begins her garden design masterclass.

Celebrating Scottish gardens. The team decide to start planting potatoes, Lesley and Carole mount their tatties-in-containers challenge and Jim gives a self-sufficient couple tips.

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim and George show how to pollinate plants by hand to maximise fruit yields. And Carole and Lesley take a look at some of last year's potato trials.

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole and Lesley revamp the Beechgrove alpine garden, George demonstrates how to grow large vegetables, and Jim plants broad beans and sweet peas.

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole and Lesley plant new collections of baby fuchsias, Carole and George tackle leek rust and white onion rot, and the tulips are out in force.

Episode 6

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole starts a gourd trial, Jim seeds celtuce, chicory, claytonia and Chinese kale while Lesley tackles square gardens in her design masterclass.

Episode 7

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole attempts to rekindle interest in carnations, Jim has another go at growing sweetcorn, and George learns the tricks of the bonsai-growing trade.

Episode 8

The team is on a break from the garden to be at Gardening Scotland. Sometimes called the Chelsea of the north, it is the biggest gardening show north of the border.

Episode 9

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim indulges his passion for dahlias and provides solutions for a steep, sloping garden in Linlithgow, and Lesley creates an Olympic-themed bedding.

Episode 10

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole and Lesley plant annuals in the greenhouse, Carole seeds her geranium family trial, and Carolyn has solutions for a shaded, sloped garden.

Episode 11

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim reviews developments in the orchard, Carole plants a range of micro leaves and George gives a Kelso couple pruning and plant maintenance tips.

Episode 12

Celebrating Scottish gardens. The team puts waders on and heads for the pond, Jim tries out a new lawn moss product, and Carole visits a couple's garden in Grantown-on-Spey.

Episode 13

Celebrating Scottish gardens. The team discuss the state of the oak which is now hampering the growth of other plants, and decide to lift the crown of the tree.

Episode 14

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim checks on the success of the yields in the fruit house, and Carole and George give the bog garden a revamp. Plus Jim reviews the garvinea trial.

Episode 15

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole and Lesley make arrangements of hardy annuals and check their potato yields, while Jim sees if a new fertiliser has helped the vegetable crop.

Episode 16

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole visits Janis Louden in Lumphanan to help create a herb garden before tracking down the renowned giant titum arum at the RBGE.

Episode 17

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim, Carole and Lesley each take a favourite area of the garden to showcase as well as completing routine maintenance in those areas.

Episode 18

Celebrating Scottish gardens. The team is on the road to help complete the development of a new community garden used by those affected by homelessness in Maryhill, Glasgow.

Episode 19

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim reviews varieties of dahlias and garvineas, and visits Glenbervie House's garden, while Carole and Lesley look at their trial of tumbling plants.

Episode 20

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Carole harvests her trial broad beans, Lesley discovers how her hardy and half-hardy annuals have fared, and George helps a pair of novice gardeners.

Episode 21

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim reviews the vegetables he has been growing in the potager and Carole demonstrates how to take semi-ripe cuttings for easy propogation.

Episode 22

Celebrating Scottish gardens. Jim works on the main lawn to help it cope with erratic weather conditions, while Carole helps Drumblade Primary clear the weeds from its sandpit.

Episode 23

Landscape gardening show. The Beechgrove team are on the road to Spey Bay to help build a garden full of wildlife themes at one of the most exposed sites they have ever worked on.

Episode 24

Celebrating Scottish gardens. George Anderson enters his produce at the Dalkeith show, and Jim McColl visits the Newburgh Orchard Group in Fife to learn of their current project.

Episode 25

Gardening programme celebrating Scottish gardens, with horticultural tips. The team enjoys the colour of autumn while battening down the hatches ahead of the winter.

Episode 26

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.

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.

Beechgrove is back! Spring-loaded and raring to grow. The sun always shines in Beechgrove, but how has the sunniest winter since records began affected growing conditions? Jim McColl, Carole Baxter, George Anderson and Chris Beardshaw find out. Carole and Jim know that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but there is an air of competition as they take on neighbouring greenhouses and pack them full of food and flowers all year round. George visits the Scottish Rock Garden Club's show in Kincardine. Who has grown the best bulbs, perfect primula or the iconic iris and how? Gardening lights up our lives, but in Glasgow Botanic Gardens they have taken that to a new level. George experiences the eerie elegance of the Electric Gardens.

In the Beechgrove Garden Chris dons his safety gear and whips off 50 shades of green (conifers) in a chainsaw-pruning frenzy. Meanwhile, in a much more sedate fashion George starts off a bite-size project to see how productive he can be in just one square metre of space. And keeping it small, Jim and Carole return to their neighbouring greenhouses to start growing. Carole also makes her first visit to Aileen Snowden's garden in Newport-on- Tay. Aileen and family moved to their new home from a flat and have never had a garden before. The garden is mature and overgrown and Aileen doesn't know where to start. Carole will work with Aileen throughout the season to tame and claim and love the plot she's got.

You will certainly have your five a day with Beechgrove this week. Jim is testing temperatures and hoping to sow early broad beans while Carole and Chris take a look at the fruits of their labours from last year with their containerised peaches. Staying small, George is in the fruit cage planting a new mini orchard. Hoping to prove that the fruit of your own labours is the sweetest, Jim is helping Carol Cocker in Inverurie to learn how to grow her own for the first time. Jim is like a child in a tree sweet shop as he visits an awesome arboretum in Kippen.

In the Beechgrove Garden Jim is plants 'heirloom vegetables' to compare performance with contemporary interlopers. In the first of several monthly visits to Scone Palace garden, head gardener Brian Cunningham unveils his plans for a tribute to local plant hunter David Douglas. When Euan and Jenny Maclean moved into their new build house in Linlithgow it was the house of their dreams. Over the course of this series, Chris is going to guide the new to gardening couple to turn a nightmare of a space into a garden to match their dream home.

It's daffolicious in the Beechgrove garden as Jim takes a look at his trial of new versus old daffodils to see if traditional beats contemporary in the daffodil world. Meanwhile George further tests that theory as he visits Backhouse Daffodils near Auchtermuchty who have daffodils that are the origins of many of the modern daffodils in use today. Chris reviews his climbers for every aspect and to complement them he adds roses to the cutting garden. Pruning is sometimes a thorny issue and so Carole and Jim are pruning their way around the garden to show us how to take the mystery out of it.

Seed scattered and sown, and lawns grown and mown. Carole shows us an easy way to sow flower seeds while Jim toils away on the lawn. Then it's sweet pea planting - scrambling v cordon-trained. Chris is back with Jenny and Euan MacLean in Linlithgow for a second visit to their nightmare plot and this time it's dreamy breakfast-and-teatime terraces and the perfect pergola. George is still in a tight corner tending his small-space vegetable garden. Carole visits Hamish McKelvie and his prickly friends in Houston, Renfrewshire. Since boyhood, Hamish has built up a huge collection of cacti.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is in the conservatory showing how to prune camellias, while Carole puts together hanging baskets with some new plant introductions. This is Carole's second visit to new gardeners in a mature garden, Mark and Aileen Snowden, in Newport on Tay and this time, Carole creates a fruit border for the family. Carole is also treated to a spectacular spring show in the 'auricular theatre' at Rumbling Bridge Nursery.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim hopes to catch up with the veg planting that he wasn't able to do last week in the torrential rain. Carole and Jim are also back in their side-by-side 6 x 8 greenhouses pricking out and planting. George helps Josine Atsma in Glendevon to create a new bog garden and plants it up with moisture-loving perennials. Carole visits Peter and Gill Hart in Fife. They have 20 acres of woodland, the floor of which at this time of the year is carpeted with bluebells, hellebores, trilliums and wood anemones - as well as a collection of rhododendrons.

Jim and Carole are preparing for the seasons to come as they show how to overwinter a whole range of vegetables so that they will be ready for harvest early next year. Jim is also preparing plants for the winter months and shows how to put begonias to bed. Also in the programme, Carole and George taste test Carole's spaghetti squash and her greenhouse-grown aubergines while Jim and George revel in the late fruit harvest. Chris visits Greywalls Garden near Gullane. Built in 1901, Greywalls is a stunning example of an Edwardian arts and crafts garden. Although this is a grand garden, Chris finds planting combination lessons for all of us - but particularly appropriate for those who garden in exposed conditions.

Jim and Carole walk around the garden pointing out plant combinations showing colour at this time of year. Jim prepares half hardy perennials for winter, whilst Carole enjoys the gloxinias which are still flowering well and shows how to dry off amaryllis bulbs. In Coldstream, George Anderson meets Alec West who has an orchard jam-packed with apples, pears and plums - his fruit collection is said to be the biggest in Scotland.

The team enjoy the autumn colour in the Beechgrove garden. Carole and George plant various combinations of bulbs and spring bedding plants to see which of these make the most attractive displays, while Jim has a big clear-out in his greenhouse. The programme catches up with Brian Cunningham at Scone Palace Garden to review the progress made to the David Douglas trail, and Carole also visits Tillypronie Garden near Tarland and delights in the swathes of heathers.

Although this is the last in the present series, gardening is a year round activity and so Jim, Carole, George and Chris have a long list of jobs that we could and should be doing that will keep us all busy for the foreseeable. This is also a perfect time to be planting and Chris and George are starting off a new project to create a 'sub-tropical' garden that although will look exotic and jungly next year, it will be created with super hardy plants. Carole visits Tom Taylor in Drumoak who lives on an estate where 30 years ago, the front gardens were all planted with 'dwarf conifers'. Those conifers have all grown into massive trees. Tom became interested in the Japanese art of Niwaki training and sculpting of trees. Tom shows Carole how to be more creative with conifers.

Beechgrove is back despite winter storms, Jim McColl, Carole Baxter, George Anderson and Chris Beardshaw and the Beechgrove garden are all in one piece, looking radishing and ready to grow. Scotland has suffered the wettest winter on record so Jim and the team wade in to find out how that affects growing conditions. When Maggie Patience came to live near Aboyne she found winter days short on light and colour. Carole visited Maggie's garden in early winter to experience the unique way she has added year round colour. Plus Chris literally wades in to Beechgrove's newly re-vamped pond

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim admires the colourful camellias which are conservatory confined to prolong flowering and fragrance. Meanwhile, looking at colour in stems rather than blooms, George creates an inspirational winter-interest border on a slope in Beechgrove. Carole begins a new mini-strand - Garden on a Budget. Meike and Jan Guijt and their young family moved into their new home in Kennethmont in 2015. Throughout the series, Carole will help new gardener Meike mould a garden out of almost nothing.

In this edition of the gardening magazine, Jim investigates digging. He grows two sets of vegetables side by side to compare how digging affects them. Brian Cunningham, head gardener of Scone Palace, is redesigning the alpine garden at Beechgrove, while George takes a tour of 19th-century Braco Castle garden with head gardener Jodie Simpson.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is attempting to turn yellow into green as he tackles the lawn, which has turned a washed-out yellow after all the rains of winter. And continuing the theme of upgrading the 20-year-old Beechgrove Garden, Jim takes on an unloved corner of the low-maintenance garden, removing a rotting fence and pruning a wayward quince. Brian Cunningham visits the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, which is home to one of the most impressive alpine collections in the world, for inspiration as to how to recreate that in miniature back in Beechgrove.

In the Beechgrove garden, Jim is hoping that the soil is now warm enough to plant tatties in the main veggie plot, while on the decking garden Carole is also planting tatties on a tiny scale. Chris and Carole are going on very different fungal forays in Beechgrove this year. Chris is creating a whole Jurassic Park fungal valley with ancient timbers and all manner of edible mushrooms. Again on the other end of the scale, Carole tries out some windowsill mushroom-growing kits. George visits Alan Shamash's impressive hillside garden full of an extensive collection of rhododendrons in Kirkudbright.

Carole continues with her windowsill gardening and sows herbs and salad leaves, which can be used to produce tasty, foodie salads for weeks. In Garden on a Budget, Carole is with Mieke Guijt in rural Kennethmont, helping to mould a garden out of almost nothing. Carole takes Mieke on a budget shopping trip to buy materials for easy-to-make compost bays and shows her how to have plants for 'free'. George visits the painterly garden of Broughton House in Kirkcudbright. The house and garden belonged to EA Hornel, artist, collector and 'Glasgow boy'. George discovers how much the garden influenced Hornel's paintings.

Carole creates a chef's windowsill as she grows a range of micro salads, while Chris takes on the job of revamping the old heather garden and turns it into our own piece of an ancient Scottish hill top in miniature. George and Jim are off on a bulb-lover's busman's holiday and indulging in more than a little 'tulip fever' as they visit world-famous Keukenhof Botanic Park near Amsterdam to see the mind-blowing bulb displays.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is starting off new varieties of tomatoes and he's going to try them in a range of new tomato growing gadgets. Brian Cunningham, head gardener of Scone Palace, is back continuing his revamping of the Beechgrove alpine garden. This week, Brian finishes off the hard landscaping and starts the planting. Jim and George's busman's holiday continues in the Netherlands and this time they visit the world's largest cut flower auction at Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam.

In the Beechgrove Garden, Jim is dealing with hardy veg in the veg plot, while Carole is starting off some tender veg in the polytunnel. Brian Cunningham, head gardener of Scone Palace, is back at Beechgrove to finish the new alpine garden planting. Carole also visits Mike and Sue Thornley at Glenarn Gardens in Rhu, near Helensburgh. This garden dates back to the 1920s and 30s and is best known for its stunning collection of tender rhododendrons that are planted in a sheltered Himalayan glen.

The Beechgrove team take a break from the garden to be at Gardening Scotland, 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. We see those who are growing for gold including those exhibits showing off their medals from the previous week's Chelsea Flower Show. Show gardens are a buzzing, eclectic mix from Hive Jive, a garden inspired by the 'waggle dance' of bees, to the secret herb garden made with invasive weeds that are turned into beer. Beechgrove will be concentrating on the Scottish talent and Scottish plants but we'll join them all for a sneak preview as well as sampling the unique atmosphere of Gardening Scotland.

The Beechgrove Garden - 2016: Episode 11 In this edition of the gardening magazine, Carole is in the Keder, starting the year's collection of tender vegetables, and Jim is with the allotmenteers of Tillicoultry to discover how the community runs this immaculately presented and organised allotment. The gardening charity Scotland's Gardens celebrates its 85th year. To mark the occasion, Carole visits one of their new recruits and newest garden on the list, at Barbara Pickard's no-nonsense but beautiful cottage garden at Balmullo in Fife.

In this edition of the gardening magazine, Jim and George are planning for jam tomorrow as Jim sorts out the raspberries, while George is a wee bit more exotic and tends to the fig and the vine. In Garden on a Budget, Carole is with Meike Guijt and family in rural Kennethmont helping mould a garden out of almost nothing. This week, they create a garden table from an old tree stump and plant some edible flowers. Jim is concerned that gardening is not offered as a career choice for young people. In a mission to find How to Grow a Gardener, Jim visits the enlightened Breadalbane Academy in Aberfeldy, which has practical gardening on the curriculum as well as a beautiful community garden to show for it.

Jim, Carole and George investigate some neglected mature shrubs. Jim looks at the flowering quince, while Carole and George tackle the berberis and the pyracantha. Continuing to trace the path of a gardener's training, Jim visits Elmwood College in Cupar to find out about apprenticeships in the lovely college gardens. Carole visits the impressive Braco Castle garden in Stirlingshire, which features a range of rhododendrons that are designed to have a very long season of flowering.

The Beechgrove Garden - 2016: Episode 14 The whole Beechgrove team are taking the road to the ancient Highland fishing port and market town of Nairn. Taking advantage of the particular microclimate of the Moray Coast, the gardeners of Nairn have much to show to the Beechgrove team. To set the scene for this special programme the team will be visiting some glorious gardens and finding out what conditions are like horticulturally in Nairn. Jim, Carole, Chris and Brian will also be hosting a Beechgrove Gardeners' Question time and attempting to answer as many Nairn gardening queries as possible.

Chris has been left to his own devices in the Beechgrove garden and he is planting up an exotic border with plants that are surprisingly hardy and yet look like they have just arrived from the jungle. Jim and Carole aren't far away and yet could also be on safari as they are involved with a big game garden at the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital. Jim and Carole track the progress and ultimately the finish of this therapeutic garden designed especially for children. A no-water water feature surrounded with large architectural and exotic planting and making their way to the dry river bed are some life-size giraffes and a family of elephants that are rooted to the spot and available to touch as they are made in box hedging.

Jim brings us up to date on how the crops in the veg plot are doing, whilst Carole checks up on the progress of more tender veg inside. Chris battles with the bog garden at Beechgrove, replanting this previously overgrown area with wet soil loving plants. At North Kessock, just north of Inverness overlooking the Moray Firth, Carole marvels at a virtually vertical rock face lying on bedrock, which David and Penny Veitch have transformed over almost 30 years into a haven for alpines and scree plants.

In the Beechgrove garden, Carole takes a look at and tastes both peas that are sweet and sweet peas. Carole has been running an observation on varieties of peas and their support systems, and it's time for harvest and analysis. George returns to his roots as he visits Athelstaneford village near North Berwick. Twelve village gardens are gearing up for an open day, and George takes a tour around as many gardens as he can. Jim visits Douneside House in Tarland to meet head gardener Stephen McCallum, who leads a progressive horticulture apprenticeship scheme in the stunning surroundings of Douneside House gardens.

Jim McColl, Carole Baxter, George Anderson and Chris Beardshaw are on the road to Gairloch to find out what grows and possibly also what doesn't in wonderful Wester Ross. Challenged to come to Gairloch by local resident, Helena Bowie, the Beechgrove team are ready to answer Helena's and the Gairloch community's gardening problems in a Beechgrove Gardener's question time event. To set the scene for gardening conditions in the area Jim also visits the world renowned Inverewe gardens where the Gulf Stream is used to such advantage. Despite its northerly location it boasts a range of exotic plants from around the world right there in wild Wester Ross and is the epitome of gardening on the edge. Carole also visits self-sufficient, vegetarian octogenarians, Chrissie Rennie and Bob Mapstone who garden in idyllic South Erradale.

A sparkling summer bedding display dazzles the eye this week in the Beechgrove Garden. More colour comes from Calla lilies and Black Eyed Susans in Carole's 6 x 8ft greenhouse, and it is tasting and testing time for Jim's tomatoes. Chris dons his waders and is planting in the pond. On his second visit to Tillycoultry allotments Jim looks at the communal greenhouses on the site, and finds out about the tuition sessions which help the 'plotters' use a range of garden machinery.

Jim, Carole and George begin a series of bulb plantings by naturalising some unusual bulbs in the new lawn. Chris, with advice from Jim and Carole, takes on an emotional job as the decision is made to cut down and replace the 15-year-old cryptomeria tree in Beechgrove. Jim visits a special garden that he has been hoping to see for years, Portmore near Eddleston.

Jim is thinking ahead and planting overwintering veg that will be ready to crop in the spring. 2016 is the 50th anniversary of Keep Scotland Beautiful. To mark that, Carole takes a look around Colourful Carnoustie, a relative newcomer to the Keep Scotland Beautiful campaign. George visits social enterprise group Seedbox in Ballogie near Aboyne. The group have asked Beechgrove to help them tame two huge and very old Yew trees.

In the Beechgrove Garden Jim is in the veggie plot still managing to crop late veg and it's also hedge cutting time of year and Jim sets about the conifer hedge and the pleached lime. Carole is with Mieke Guijt and family in rural Aberdeenshire helping her once again to garden on a budget. This week Carole encourages Mieke to lift and divide plants from friend's gardens and in this case, the friends are Beechgrove. Continuing the budget theme, Carole then visits Mari Reid in Ardersier, whose whole garden is full of money-saving ideas while still managing to be penny-pinching pretty.

There's a wee chill in the air in the Beechgrove Garden and Jim decides to take the Camellias inside after their summer holidays outdoors. Carole and George are thinking ahead to spring, taking half-hardy perennial cuttings and planning a spring bedding display. Jim takes a final trip to Tillicoultry Allotments and this time it's harvest thanksgiving. Jim also visits Gordon Castle garden near Elgin, where the team are restoring one of the oldest walled-kitchen gardens in Scotland.

im, Carole and George are on the road again as they visit Strathkinness, the Best Kept Small Village in Fife, for the final Beechgrove Roadshow of the series. The villagers invited Beechgrove to enjoy the horticultural highlights of one of the sunniest places in Scotland. In the village hall the community gathers to try and test the gardening know-how of Jim, Carole, George and Brian Cunningham (head gardener at Scone Palace), as they find out what grows and possibly what doesn't in the area and answer as many questions as possible in a Beechgrove Gardener's question time.

Leaves are falling in the Beechgrove Garden but that's not necessarily a bad thing as Jim uses them to make lovely leaf mould. He also shows the steamy secrets of his new hot box composter. Carole makes her last visit to Mieke and family in rural Aberdeenshire where they are gardening on a budget and this week they learn how to shred material to make economical but pretty paths. Jim knows very well that gardening is good for you but this week it's especially so as he marks the 10th anniversary of Trellis, which is designed to support therapeutic gardening as he visits a really restorative nursery and garden, Solstice, in Banchory-Devenick.

It's the final programme of the series and Jim, Carole, George and Chris are battening down the hatches, preparing the garden for the winter but also making plans for spring. Carole is starting her Christmas wrapping early as she shows how to wrap up tender plants around the garden that need extra protection. George and Jim are in the fruit cage, where it's a good time to take stock and do some remedial fruit work. Carole also visits Huntly Cot, a unique garden near Temple in Midlothian. At its centre is a heart-shaped heather garden, with a natural spring burn, perfectly in tune with the garden's moorland setting.

The best sign of spring is when the Beechgrove Garden returns and Jim McColl, Carole Baxter, George Anderson, Chris Beardshaw and Brian Cunningham are all back in the garden dispensing sage advice to keep growing. At this time of the year, we are normally bemoaning winter storms - so what do we have to talk about after one of the mildest winters on record? Jim and team look at the signs of spring and see if it really has come early this year. Jim also takes a look at the progress of the overwintered veg, while George has already set himself a challenge to produce a weekly salad. Carole has been in search of early signs of spring as she takes an up close and personal look at the tiny world of snowdrops. She also visits Helen Rushton in Rothienorman to discover why these tiny beauties excite such passions.

Winter hasn't been too cruel this year, but Carole is still hoping to find out how hardy the plants are that she deliberately left in the ground last year to test their resilience. Meanwhile, George takes a look at his winter stem border that's full of plants that have been shining out in the darker months. Undercover, the glasshouse is a hive of activity at this time and Jim is sowing for Scotland. Chris continues to work on the pond area of the garden, planting a range of grasses on the banking but it's perhaps a little too early for the waders. Carole visits retired doctor and artist David Hawson, who has created a fascinating topiary garden in Monymusk.

To dig or not to dig, that is the question on Jim and George's lips in the Beechgrove Garden. Two side-by-side veg plots, both preparing to grow, but one has been dug over and the other untouched. Scone Palace is overrun by rabbits like many Beechgrove viewers' gardens. Head gardener Brian Cunningham sets up an observation to try and find out if there really is such a thing as rabbit-proof plants. George is no shrinking violet when it comes to floristry and as Jim would say, every day is a school day. This week, George goes back to school, not just any school but flower school in Edinburgh, where he learns tips and tricks to put together some unique arrangements with spring flowers.

Carole and Jim are also both planting potatoes; Jim is planting new blight-resistant varieties in the main veg plot, whereas Carole tries cheap and cheerful potato bags on the decking. The typical size of a UK garden is 14sqm, which provides little space for planting trees. Jim has asked the team to each choose their best tree for a small garden and is planting them all in Beechgrove to compare and contrast. Saughton Park is a faded, hidden garden gem in the south west of Edinburgh. The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, or the Caley, as it's affectionately known, has taken up the challenge of renovating this once-grand park and garden. George will visit the project on a regular basis during its design and build.

Jim is planting a selection of swedes and turnips for later in the year. Meanwhile, Chris is attempting to create a rose garden at Beechgrove, but how will they cope with exposed Scottish conditions? Carole is in Ardersier for Vegetable Garden on a Budget, with recent research suggesting that a family of four could save roughly £1,500 a year growing their own vegetables. Mari Reid lives and gardens in Ardersier and has come up with a clever way of helping others to grow their own by using community-minded land or garden share.

Gardening show that celebrates Scottish horticulture and growing conditions.

All Episodes of The Beechgrove Garden

Browse all episodes of The Beechgrove Garden

Season 1