The BEST episodes of Gardeners' World season 44
Every episode of Gardeners' World season 44, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Gardeners' World season 44!
Gardeners' World is a long-running BBC television programme about gardening that continues to this day. The first episode was filmed in 1968, presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Most of the episodes of the show are 30 minutes long, though there are many specials that last longer.
#1 - Episode 3
Season 44 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/25/2011
British summer time means that, from Saturday, we all have an extra hour to get out in our gardens in the evenings just as the early spring display is coming into its own. At Longmeadow, Monty Don introduces us to the coppice, a woodland area where his favourite flower, the primrose, is in bloom.As well as enjoying the seasonal colours of spring, it's time to plan the summer display. Monty sows sweet peas and gives his recommendations of what to grow to give you for colour in the garden and cut flowers for the house.
Watch Now:Amazon#2 - Episode 4
Season 44 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/1/2011
As April gets under way, at Longmeadow Monty Don begins the process of reinvigorating his Jewel Garden where, over the coming months, he will be using plants which will give an evolving tapestry of colour over the seasons. Beginning with structural plants, Monty recommends shrubs to give any border a richness of colour, either through their leaves or their flowers. Evergreen shrubs that are in their flowering prime right now are camellias, and Carol Klein revels in the glory of one the world's most renowned camellia collections when she visits Mount Edgcumbe on the banks of the River Tamar in Cornwall. Meanwhile, Rachel de Thame goes behind the scenes at the Royal Horticultural Society's main garden at Wisley, where she reveals the secrets of a mysterious brew they've been using to keep their plants looking at their very best. Back at Longmeadow, the soil has warmed up sufficiently for Monty to be able to get his allotment under way.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - Episode 6
Season 44 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/15/2011
As spring gets well underway, Monty Don adds to his collection of fritillaries at Longmeadow with pot-grown plants, as well as sowing some from seed. He also recommends other wildflowers which would thrive in the garden. Carol Klein meets Matt Bishop, who explains why he is attracted to later flowering varieties of daffodils and demonstrates how he is using them to breed new ones. Rachel de Thame shows a viewer how to get to grips with pruning an overgrown shrubbery, and divides and plants easy perennials for a blaze of summer colour. Back at Longmeadow, Monty celebrates the versatility of the euphorbia, which will bring colour, form and longevity to all areas of the garden from full sun to dry shade, and begins work on planting a variety of ornamental vegetables, such as ruby chard and red cabbage.
#4 - Episode 2
Season 44 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/18/2011
As the winter draws to a close, work in the garden starts to step up gear. With the flowers and fruits of summer in mind, Monty Don gets going by planting pots of summer bulbs for colour and scent, passing on his secrets of success by using a variety of different planting techniques. He also reveals his plans for reinvigorating the area in his garden where perennials planted for their rich jewel-like colours need some attention. He shows that, by dividing and replanting some of the larger clumps now, he will get not only more plants but a better display later in the summer. Carol Klein visits Glendurgan Garden in Cornwall. Despite a slow start to the year, their magnificent magnolias are starting to bloom and she also joins in with the replanting of a border and gets their advice on the care and planting of tree ferns.
Watch Now:Amazon#5 - Episode 1
Season 44 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/11/2011
Gardeners' World returns with Monty Don back at the helm, but this time in the garden at his own Herefordshire home - a place that he has lovingly nurtured for the last 20 years. With winter receding, Monty, Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame are preparing for spring. As well as showing us round his garden, Monty lifts and divides snowdrops. He also gets his vegetable garden started by sowing beetroot and planting onions. Carol Klein visits one of Britain's most inspirational winter gardens, Anglesey Abbey, and discovers that even in the darkest winter months gardens can still delight the senses with colour, fragrance and architectural beauty. Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame are in Dorset offering advice and a helping hand to a plucky gardener who, although it is officially still winter, is about to open her garden to the public under the National Garden Scheme.
#6 - Episode 14
Season 44 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/8/2011
An hour-long episode of the gardening programme. At Longmeadow, Monty Don shows which plants to choose for sensational borders right through the summer - from ornamental grasses to late flowering perennials. He also plants out squashes and pumpkins, as well as making his own comfrey feed. Carol Klein is at Glebe Cottage giving advice on the best hardy geraniums for different situations and sharing tips on how to lift, divide and propagate them. She also visits the remarkable gardens of Waltham Place where the landscape is deliberately left untamed and even weeds are allowed to flourish. She discovers what plants work best in this low maintenance gardening style and learns how to create this type of naturalistic planting. Joe Swift is at Cothay Manor to discover what it takes to maintain 12 acres of stunning gardens and to see their many garden rooms, each a gem in its own right. And Rachel de Thame is at RHS Wisley getting advice from the experts on how to prune wisteria to get maximum flowers next spring.
#7 - Episode 16
Season 44 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/29/2011
This show celebrates the arrival of the holiday season. At Longmeadow, Monty ensures that there will be late summer colour by propagating some his favourites from the fantastically diverse salvia family. He also divides irises and reveals what has gone wrong with his onion crop. Joe finds seasonal inspiration at historic Newby Hall in North Yorkshire, home to the longest herbaceous borders in Europe. Carol is at home showing how she keeps her flower beds looking their best at this time of year. Then she heads to the heart of London and discovers some hidden gardens to visit, all for the price of a travel card.
#8 - Wet Meadow
Season 44 - Episode 19 - Aired 8/26/2011
Monty Don unveils his plans for a wet meadow. He starts by planting herbaceous perennials that will thrive in heavy soils and also look good amidst the long grass. He also pots-on his salvia cuttings and explains the benefits of planting 'green manure' in the veg patch. Now that he has harvested his potatoes, that is exactly what he is doing to boost the fertility of the soil for next year. Carol Klein goes to the Welsh mountains to pick up some veg-growing tips from some green fingered ex-miners at their pristine allotments. And Tom Hart-Dyke goes to one of his favourite gardens, Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset, and he is on the look out for unusual plants from far-flung shores that we can be grown in gardens in Britain.
#9 - Christmas Special
Season 44 - Episode 28 - Aired 12/9/2011
In this Christmas special, Monty Don, Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame celebrate the festive season from a gardener's point of view. At Longmeadow, Monty and Rachel have a good clear up, cutting back some plants but leaving others for winter structure and wildlife. Monty also rejuvenates his rhubarb patch and introduces a local Herefordshire heritage variety apple tree to his orchard. He enlists Joe Swift's help to move a holly tree that has outgrown its situation. Out and about, Carol Klein discovers some of Britain's best winter walks. Rachel de Thame gets tips on how, with a bit of ingenuity, anyone can make beautiful Christmas decorations from their own garden. Joe Swift visits an urban vineyard in Hackney, East London to find out which grapes can be grown at home. As a special Christmas cracker, Pam Ayres, poet and gardener, shows us how she encourages wildlife into her garden and provides for seasonal visitors during the colder months.
#10 - The Laskett
Season 44 - Episode 20 - Aired 9/2/2011
Monty Don shows what to do now to maximise next year's soft fruit crop by pruning his summer raspberries and planting on the strawberry runners he potted up a few weeks ago. As Monty harvests September's abundance in the vegetable garden he makes notes of the tastiest varieties he has grown this year which he would grow again next year, as well as sowing some quick growing crops to harvest in the autumn. At Glebe Cottage, some of the mainstays of the late summer garden are from South Africa and Carol Klein is propagating them by sowing agapanthus seeds and demonstrating an unusual method of increasing eucomis. And Rachel de Thame visits the renowned historian Sir Roy Strong at his own garden, The Laskett, and talks to him about its creation over the last 40 years, while getting a privileged look at his extraordinary archive.
#11 - Marqueyssac
Season 44 - Episode 21 - Aired 9/9/2011
With bees in mind, Monty plans for spring by planting some early nectar sources for them using bulbs which flower early in the year, namely crocus and winter aconites. He also selects some asters which will not only give colour for autumn but will also help bees build up their nectar reserves to help them survive the winter. Carol is in Norfolk at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve taking a look at the borders designed by the renowned plantsman Piet Oudolf who has recently reworked his planting there. She finds out how he has combined over 100 different types of perennials and over 20 types of grasses to produce some stunning combinations which are also good for the insect population. And Joe Swift discovers the remarkable overhanging gardens of Marqueyssac in the Dordogne where over 150,000 hand-pruned, one hundred year-old box trees have been sculpted into curves and shapes to mimic the surrounding countryside. Back at Longmeadow, Monty begins the task of repairing and reseeding his grass paths and recommends lawn seed to cope with shade and heavy footfall.
#12 - Episode 22
Season 44 - Episode 22 - Aired 9/23/2011
Monty Don shows how to take cuttings from favourite roses to bulk up stock for free. He looks ahead to summer 2012 by planting foxgloves he's raised from seed, along with autumn onions for a bumper crop in June. Carol Klein is at Glebe Cottage collecting seeds from her favourite flowers with a view to planting up a new border as cheaply as possible. And Rachel de Thame is at Hook End Farm in Berkshire admiring one gardener's wide variety of splendid roses growing in every corner of her garden.
#13 - Episode 23
Season 44 - Episode 23 - Aired 9/30/2011
In a special programme which comes from all four of the Royal Horticultural Society gardens, the Gardeners' World team are out on the road exploring how each location's differing climate affects the plants they grow and getting plenty of gardening tips along the way. Carol Klein introduces the programme from Wisley in Surrey, one of the country's southern 'hot spots'. She finds out how plants are assessed in their trial beds and how that information is useful to all gardeners. In the northernmost garden at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire, where the winters can be quite harsh, Joe Swift gets plenty of timely propagating tips. Rachel de Thame explores the gardens at Hyde Hall in Essex, the driest county, and discovers plants which thrive with minimal rainfall. By contrast, in the west, where the rainfall is high, Monty Don visits Rosemoor in Devon and finds plenty of inspiring planting combinations in their colourful 'hot borders'.
#14 - Episode 24
Season 44 - Episode 24 - Aired 10/7/2011
Monty Don has advice on how to successfully store an apple crop so it will last through winter, and explains why he thinks it high time wall flowers came back into fashion. With tomatoes now over, Monty clears his greenhouse and plans for next year by planting garlic in the vegetable garden. Carol is home at Glebe Cottage, where she is dividing her perennials to continue the cost-effective stocking of her new beds. Alan Power, head gardener of one of Britain's best loved gardens, Stourhead, travels to Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland to see how the gardens there have influenced his ideas.
#15 - Episode 25
Season 44 - Episode 25 - Aired 10/14/2011
At Longmeadow, Monty is planning for next summer by sowing a batch of sweet peas. He wants to find out, by sowing a batch now and another next spring, whether the flowering and general performance of the plants will differ. Carol Klein is amongst the leaves, bark and berries at Thorp Perrow Arboretum in Yorkshire admiring the onset of the autumn display, and recommends varieties suitable to plant in our gardens. Plus, a visit to Ryton Gardens in Warwickshire to find out about their collection of heritage vegetables and how to collect their seeds, and back at Longmeadow, Monty plants daffodils and anemones in the dry shade under trees for a spring display.
#16 - Episode 26
Season 44 - Episode 26 - Aired 10/21/2011
With autumn well under way, some plants in the garden need to be brought in under cover. Monty Don makes a start by insulating his greenhouse to provide a winter home for all sorts of tender plants and gives his tips and techniques for ensuring their survival until next year. Carol Klein visits the garden of a tropical plant enthusiast to find out how he protects some of his exotic specimens and also discovers some which are perfectly hardy in Britain's climate. And Monty's at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in South Africa admiring many of their native plants which are also familiar to British gardens.
#17 - Episode 27
Season 44 - Episode 27 - Aired 10/28/2011
Monty Don gets going with autumn garden maintenance whilst looking back over the year and reviewing his borders to see which plants have done well and which haven't. As he clears annuals that are past their best, he plans a colourful display for late spring by planting up the garden with tulips. Carol Klein is at Glebe Cottage, continuing work on her new raised beds and taming an overgrown and unruly rambling rose, explaining how to prune and tie it in for maximum flower performance next summer. Joe Swift visits Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and looks at how its strong structural design ensures the garden's interest over the winter months. And Monty Don gets going with autumn garden maintenance whilst looking back over the year and reviewing his borders to see which plants have done well and which haven't. As he clears annuals that are past their best, he plans a colourful display for late spring by planting up the garden with tulips. Carol Klein is at Glebe Cottage, continuing work on her new raised beds and taming an overgrown and unruly rambling rose, explaining how to prune and tie it in for maximum flower performance next summer. Joe Swift visits Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and looks at how its strong structural design ensures the garden's interest over the winter months. And Monty extols the virtues of making your own leaf mould as well as recommending several jobs we could all be doing in our gardens this winter.
#18 - Episode 18
Season 44 - Episode 18 - Aired 8/19/2011
Monty Don is planning ahead and planting autumn flowering crocus at Longmeadow. Also for autumn colour, he's adding cyclamen to the spring garden, and has tips on how to get a great show from them. Joe Swift visits Marks Hall, a surprising but inspiring modern garden created within the original walls of a Victorian kitchen garden. And Carol Klein is in Staffordshire with a couple who've created a garden for all seasons in their half-acre plot.
#19 - Episode 17
Season 44 - Episode 17 - Aired 8/12/2011
Monty Don prunes the deciduous hedges that are key part of the structure and form of Longmeadow. He shows us how to shape and cut as well as share tips on the right tools for the job. He also plants dahlias and cannas in pots for colour that will last from now and into the autumn and will provide a vibrant replacement for the spent lilies. Monty also heads to the capital and gets exclusive access to the second largest garden in London, the US Ambassador's garden where he meets head gardener, Stephen Crisp who has created a wonderful 'country house' style garden in the middle of a bustling city. Carol Klein visits an urban garden with a difference - a bijou NGS garden called Little Eden where the owners have created a small, charming oasis of colour in the heart of a housing estate near Wakefield.
#20 - Episode 15
Season 44 - Episode 15 - Aired 7/22/2011
There are plenty of timely midsummer jobs to be getting on with this week and at Longmeadow, Monty revels in the sweet peas he grew from seed earlier in the year and shows how to keep their display going on into the weeks ahead. He also takes softwood cuttings from herbs, including lavender, and lifts and divides primulas. Rachel meets a couple from Hampshire who have created their entire garden around their obsession for one plant, the hosta. And Carol travels to Wales to find out how one man tackled his sloping plot to make a garden on five different levels.
#21 - Special hour-long episode Gardeners' World Live
Season 44 - Episode 13 - Aired 6/17/2011
Special hour-long episode of the gardening programme. Now that the threat of frost has disappeared and the ground is warm, Monty Don plants out his dahlias, tends his roses and offers tips on extending the life of the vegetable garden at Longmeadow. Monty then teams up with Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame at Gardeners' World Live, where they view some spectacular show gardens and top class plants, and take part in a bring and buy plant sale.
#22 - Giverny, The Garden of Claude Monet
Season 44 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/10/2011
Monty Don visits the iconic garden of impressionist painter Claude Monet at Giverny. As well as revelling in the beauty and colour of Monet's paradise at this time of year, he has a privileged chat to Englishman James Priest, who, just this week, took up his role as Head Gardener of this world-renowned garden. Back at Longmeadow Monty shares his top tips for growing key culinary herbs. Now that soft summer fruits are beginning to swell he also begins the task of netting and mulching strawberries to ensure he can enjoy the harvest before the birds do. Meanwhile, Carol Klein offers some timely propagation advice at her home in Devon.
#23 - The Chelsea Chop
Season 44 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/3/2011
By the first week of June, plants are growing with such speed that some have a tendency to flop. Staking is the answer. As well as sharing his tips, Monty Don shows how to make stakes that can be used for many years to come. Now the nights are guaranteed to be frost free, Monty plants out the tender annuals he's raised from seed. Carol Klein visits a Wiltshire gardener and bee keeper who wants to make the most of a shady area by planting nectar rich plants. Carol helps by choosing plants with flowers which will not only attract her honey bees but will give much needed colour. Rachel De Thame discovers the benefits of The Chelsea Chop from the experts at RHS Wisley. Here some flowering perennial plants are cut back to trick them into flowering later. Back at Longmeadow, Monty turns his attention to his citrus trees and shows how, with a bit of TLC, they will spend the summer in tip top condition.
#24 - Episode 10
Season 44 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/20/2011
As the cow parsley and hawthorn blossom herald the real arrival of summer, the jewel garden starts to show signs of the abundance of colour that is to come. Monty Don prepares to surround the courtyard garden with scented summer pots. He also shares tips on how to care for citrus plants in containers. Joe Swift visits a rarely seen private garden created by one of Britain's foremost designers that will open for the first time as part of collaboration between the RHS and the Society of Garden Designers. This wonderful contemporary space has a free-flowing organic style inspired by the surrounding landscape. Carol Klein tackles a gardening dilemma that will be of interest to all those who have a passion for climbers. She travels to Wiltshire to help a couple who have lost most of the plants on their pergola to the harsh winter and have failed to get others established.
#25 - Episode 9
Season 44 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/13/2011
Monty Don, Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame kick off the flower show season at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show. They revel in the beautiful flowers, all at the peak of perfection, in the floral marquee. They hunt for planting inspiration in the 21 show gardens and each of them scour the showground to find which plant, garden, gadget or display to choose as their 'best in show'.