Home > Documentary TV Show > Life in a Cottage Garden with Carol Klein

Life in a Cottage Garden with Carol Klein

2011

Seasons & Episodes

  • 2
  • 1

EP1 Summer Jan 11, 2013

It is summer and the garden is at its most abundant. The fragrance of lilies fills the air, and glorious colour abounds. To keep the garden at its best, there's deadheading to be done, plants to stake - and looking ahead, Carol begins to take cuttings of her favourite herbaceous perennials. Carol also sets to work in her hot borders to stage the hot tender exotics she has carefully grown on under cover. Cannas, gingers, and dahlias are all carefully planted and placed out to create a sizzling explosion of late summer colour. Summer would not be complete without a trip to the seaside. Carol takes a walk along the dunes of her local beach, Braunton Burrows, to seek out a plant she would dearly love to grow in her own garden, eryngium maritimum, our native sea holly.
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EP2 Autumn Jan 18, 2013

Autumn brings a change of mood to the garden, rich smells of wood smoke and ripening fruits pervade the air. It is a busy time for Carol - there are seedlings to be pricked out, tidying up to be done, and harvest time means there is an abundance of seed to collect. Slugs and snails have ravaged the hot borders. Carol cuts back tattered foliage to reduce the damage just in time to open the garden to the public under the National Gardens Scheme. October sees the leaves on the trees turn to gold, russet, amber and scarlet. They will need to be raked when fallen, and there are tulip bulbs yet to plant - the garden is visibly going to sleep - winter is on its way.
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EP3 Winter Jan 27, 2013

Winter has come... harsh frosts have shattered Carol's tulip pots, and her brick paths are ruined. Carol takes shelter in the potting shed and prepares her garlic for spring planting. On finer days, she begins pruning late-flowering clematis, and when the thaw comes she begins a major re-vamp in the borders. As the long dark days pass, the first green shoots of the new year appear. First it is snowdrops in ones and twos, and then in drifts, carpeting the woodland floor. These are then followed by jewel-like hellebores. As winter slides into February, and whilst the trees and shrubs are still in their dormancy, a local woodsman arrives to lay Carol's native hedge.
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EP4 Spring Feb 01, 2013

It is spring and changes are afoot in the garden. Carol begins the season by clearing away the last of the winter debris. All pruning needs to be done before the end of March and she celebrates the new season by sowing her first seeds. An expert hedge pruner comes to cloud-prune Carol's box hedging but work is interrupted by a nesting hedge sparrow. Down in the woodland garden, snowdrops have given way to celandines, violets and primroses. In May, there is a surge of new growth. It is a time for cow parsley and blossom. Although the seedlings need pricking out, the frosts are now over and the garden's renewal is underway.
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8.5| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

In this new series plantswoman Carol Klein shares with us a year in her garden at Glebe Cottage in north Devon. Carol has looked after her garden for over thirty years and each year brings with it its own rewards and delights, as well as problems and challenges. Follow Carol as her garden grows, flourishes, dies and is reborn.

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Reviews

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
George Wright As a gardening fan, I watched the winter episode, the first in the series of programs that follow the seasons in the gardening year. Carol Klein is a very enthusiastic gardener and she was very eager to go out into her garden to get started on the new year as early as January and February. In fact, she talked about planting garlic as soon as the winter solstice arrives. She, however, starts her garlic in a greenhouse to give it a head start. Carol is also seen getting up in a ladder pruning large trees growing together as soon as the shoots appear. She takes the excess material and puts it into her compost. For those of us watching the program in Canada, we know winter in most of the country is too cold and the snow too deep to be climbing ladders. Those who are fortunate enough to have a greenhouse or sun room might be able to start shoots in advance of the growing season. Nevertheless, the program did show how gardeners in England could possibly spend even the darkest days of winter getting started on the gardening year; not just planning but actually getting out there. I am sure this is a fine example to many of us who are interested in making the most of nature's cycles and appreciating the opportunities they offer. I was impressed by some of the photography highlighting the winter garden and how it morphs from dormancy to a lush garden several months later. I appreciate watching the show, even in Canada, because it highlights how a gardening can be practised in a sustainable way respecting the natural cycles of the seasons. I look forward to viewing more episodes.