SPEAKER_00 0:00

BBC Gardeners World Autumn Fair returns to the fantastic setting of Audley and House and Gardens near Saffron Walden in Essex from Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th of September. One of the Gardeners World experts who's going to be there, and I'm delighted to say joins me to look ahead to it, is Sue Kent. Sue, lovely to see you looking ahead to autumn already.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I know that the months fly by, don't they? And I'm very excited because I've never been to Audley End. And I'm really excited to go to the show there and be in that area, which I rather like. And so, yes, it's it's coming up, it'll come upon us before we know it.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Absolutely. Well, you're going to you're in for a feast because it is a beautiful uh setting there, obviously, but I know that you know the programme will include a lot of the regulars that people want to see.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah, we we all love a show garden, don't we?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

We do.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

And uh, you know, they're very relatable at Gardeners World, and you get lots of ideas from, and of course, the beautiful borders are you know, we've had 30 here at Gardeners World Live in June, and I love the beautiful borders because it's a manageable size, and it's especially it's great for people who are just starting to garden to pick up some ideas, and often there's different colour schemes, there's different themes to them. So the beautiful borders, there is great speakers, and um it's usually good food there as well, isn't it? And of course it's autumn time, um, so uh that the everything's sort of changing, and we're harvesting our veg, and hopefully we'll be talking about that. Um, and there's just lots of and it's a beautiful place, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

It is.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

It's so I'm really looking forward to exploring, and of course, your ticket gets you into Audley End as well, doesn't it? Which is a lovely uh stately home.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

And it's at that time of year, sort of the middle of September, when things are just starting to change, and we're heading for that wonderful period of golden leaves on the floor and everything. It's it's lovely, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

It is lovely, but it's also a really interesting time in the garden because you'd have taken stock throughout the year, you will have assessed it and and and realized that you need to maybe move some things. Uh something might have got too big and you need to lift and divide them, or you've got a gap in your border. So it's a great time to make some purchases of which there'll be wonderful plants there. And you know, you you you get them into your border before it gets too cold, so the plant is still in warm soil. And so, you know, there's a lot going on in the garden, lots of changes you can make, and lots of inspiration um from all the the plants that are available with the expert advice.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Absolutely, and I know lots of people will be going looking for that advice, looking for the inspiration, then going to the many, many traders who are there to take plants home with them. What should they be planting? Because you can't plant everything in the autumn, can you? There's certain things which basically.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

We want to plant tender plants just in case we get a thing. So I think perennials are, you know, herbaceous perennials that they're gonna go die back eventually. Oh, you know, or evergreen perennials, sort of um, I'm just trying to think of the word. Ornamentals. So ornamentals for your garden, you you know, you've got a border, you want to make it look better for next year, and of course, bulbs. Bulbs are the is the time to pop those bulbs in so they get lots of spring colour, and hopefully there'll be lots of people selling them for you, and so they can talk, you know, you can get the choice and see it. You obviously can't see the flowers, but you know, you see the pictures. So it's you're putting your bulbs in, you're sorting out your herbaceous borders and your perennial borders, and I will put my trees in slightly later, but you can be, you know, if they're grown in a pot, um, there's there's no reason you know why you can't put trees in. And so it is it's really nice if you also if you want a big shrub or something big, it's it's really nice to get the choice there. There's so much choice, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 3:32

So, what will you be putting into your garden? Because I know you you're busy in your garden all year round, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

I'm busy in my garden. In the autumn, I will be putting in a bulb. So I need some more red tulips, so I'll be on that muck. I need some more white tulips. Now I find that daffodils just don't grow, they just they come up the first year and they don't come back in my in my garden. But the tulips, which aren't necessarily supposed to do that, do. So I tend to say, well, if something likes my garden, I'm gonna put more of that in and forget the thing that fails.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Absolutely. Lots of talk, uh Sue, also uh I've noticed recently uh about uh gardeners being a bit more adventurous with colour, trying new things, uh going out of their comfort zone.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Well, I I've been I've been playing with colour now for quite some time because I've had my garden for so long. I thought what can I do differently? So I'm colour zoning. So I I think when if you choose a board that's going to be a certain colour, you then got to explore the plants that that colour because you you can't, you know, you might only know a few plants that have the colour pinky, and then then you need you it opens you up if you're very specific to a colour, then you open up to all sorts of different plants of that colour. Um, and then you know, I think orange and pink has been very and you know, bright orange, bright pink, it's just amazing. And some people, of course, want it to be calmer and to be cooler, so they're gonna go for the blues and the purples, and of course, spring is more yellows and blues. Um, so I think you know, to decide on a bit of um uh boundary to your your choices, or you know, sort of to make them specific, then makes the plant hunting really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Absolutely, and of course, not everybody has a garden. Uh they might have a terrace, they might have a a window box, and some people have you know indoor plants. I mean, there's lots to do there as well, isn't there?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I think and containers are maybe like for me, sometimes big, deep containers are very difficult. But if I have a a tray table in the garden, um which is quite shallow, then you can get all these sempavariums and these heebies, and you can make a beautiful tray display out of much smaller plants, the alpines. So um, you know, you've got a small space, you can just you you can you know obviously sometimes a really big plant and the small space can make difference, but it depends what you're doing and how you're using. But some of the the little alpines are beautiful. Um and yeah, and house plants, I kill them. So I'm not going to be looking at that. Yeah, we're not gonna do house plants.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

We're not gonna talk to Sue about house plants anymore. Um in the past 12 months, obviously a lot of breeders work hard over many years to bring new varietals and new things to uh to shows, and uh in the summer at Beach Gardeners World Live, we've seen the Peter Seabrook Award for new plants coming through. What's taken your eye in the past 12 months and is it anything that that you might consider growing?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Do you know I've been I've been you know, I've I've been thinking about I like to use uh annuals to fill out my board if there's any gaps. And I was thinking about petunias. Um I don't normally use them because you have to deadhead them so much. But there's a new range of petunias which much smaller flower, but just as florescent, so you get that huge colour impact, but you don't um they they deadhead themselves.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Oh, bless them, well. Bless them.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

And so I've just seen um somebody in their beautiful borders here at Gardeners World Live um summer, and they've used petunias, and they they you know, it really on the lower levels of planting and the border, it looks really effective. So rather than just having them in a tub on the patio, I am going to use petunias. Obviously, that's what I'm going to, I'm thinking about you know doing it this summer. I can't really do it in the autumn. Um, but yeah, that's that's what's caught my eye to change my bedding up from just Cosmos Annuals and uh and and uh Nicatiana to maybe you know just see how I can use those.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Absolutely. Uh Autumn Fair is at Audley End House and Gardens near Saffron Walden in Essex. The date for your diary, Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th of September. Lots of information on who's going to be there, including when you can see the brilliant Sue Kent, is on BBC GardenersworldLive.com website. Search for Autumn, and of course, that's where you can buy the all-important tickets. Um, Sue, is there any area of gardening that you wouldn't? I mean, we've talked about houseplants and you don't go to houseplants, but is there any uh, you know, things are changing all the time, attitudes are changing all the time, planting for drought is changing, no dig is is now a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Is there any areas that you want to have a go out, wouldn't have a go out, or well it's funny because I I do I'm on garden rescue now and a lot of people want tropical plant schemes. Uh or or from another country or da da da da. And I just I sort of prefer to embrace what's around me and and what naturally grows and what you know, I love the British wild I love the British wildflowers like oxide daisies and um so I I probably wouldn't I mean I have got some tropical plants, but I might because my husband likes them and every self and he brings something back, but I probably um wouldn't embrace that uh side of things. Uh the other I also don't I'm also incredibly lazy, I don't be wrapping something up against the cold. Oh, that's a good thing. I don't want to be digging up dahlias, I don't want to be, you know, wrapping but I've got a banana and it it lives it fight another day or it doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Okay, fair enough. Um the other one of the other main sort of talking points now is about balancing with the ecosystem and providing wildlife-friendly gardens as well. Uh as we move into autumn and then eventually into winter, are there anything specific that people can do to address those?

SPEAKER_01 9:14

I think it's don't cut your plant de your seed heads off. So if you've got look, I tend to leave all the flowering plants that have gone over, the stems on the, you know, the cornflowers, the love in the mist, the uh the um, you know, all the seed heads I tend to leave on, not not the first half of the year things that are seeded, because otherwise the second half of the year from June looks a bit messy. But anything that's flowered in July onwards, I tend to leave on the seed heads. Um for the birds um to do and for the insects to sort of nest in. And the other thing I do is I've done any trimming, any big log trimming, like if I've taken my hazel down, I've got a tree, I stack them in the corners of the garden. I also turn the if I get a cracked terracotta pot or something, I turn it upside down and leave it in the corner with a bit of hay in. So maybe somebody can, you know, some little insect or mouse or something can live in there, and I don't touch my compost heap over winter because it is full of slow worms. They get in there, they make their little home there, and um but you know, you can get some big critters coming out of there in the spring. So once once they've done their bit and it's warm enough, we then we will then do the compost heap. So the compost heap gets left after a certain stage.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Talking of warm enough, we just need to keep our fingers crossed that the end of September is going to give us that that late sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Well, we have that wonderful late sunshine. And I'm still sewing tomatoes in the hope, because the the quick the quick harvesting tomatoes, the you know, the um things like tumbling tom, because last year, you know, we went right into the end of um uh October, didn't we, with a sun? And um, so I'm I'm I'm I'm just winging it to see if I'm lucky.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

I'm with you on that one because I've just done the same with some tomatoes. So fingers crossed, we should compare notes.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

We will.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

So, as always, an absolute pleasure to see you. I know it's going to be a great show, and uh you're gonna enjoy it. Your first time towardly.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

I'm so excited. I I love that side of the my family come from that side of the country, so it's nice to go over there.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Good to see you.