Beechgrove Garden

2018 marks the Beechgrove Garden's ruby anniversary. This week there are sweet signs of spring as Jim, Carole, George and Chris are surrounded by April's peach and cherry blossom.

George revisits Sheila Harper's ancient apple trees in Banchory. After a severe prune last year, George returns with slightly less sharp secateurs to show how to deal with the old trees this year. Carole visits Rosie Nixon in Perth. Rosie is a passionate wildlife gardener and photographer who creatively uses her all-seasons organic garden as her own green studio.

Throughout the 2018 series, Jim and Carole will be digging in the abundant Beechgrove archive to root out hints and tips from the last 40 years.

Jim and Carole celebrate Beechgrove's ruby anniversary in true Beechgrove style as it's tattie time. Both Jim and Carole are planting a range of ruby or red potatoes, and they also dig up an archive tattie tip from the late George Barron.

Brian is back in Beechgrove revisiting his alpine garden and reviews the winter damage, as well as doing a bit of weeding and feeding.

Last year Carole met almost-nonagenarian garden hero Sandy Inkster in his immaculate and award-winning Cults garden. Carole will visit Sandy several times throughout the 2018 series but this time meets him on his allotment on the south side of Aberdeen.

Chris is adding to the rose garden at Beechgrove. Roses and clematis are a classic combination but you do have to choose carefully, Chris explains, as they have to be able to be pruned at the same time.

Jim is planting with Beechgrove's ruby anniversary in mind, sowing red veg from beetroot 'Bulls Blood', courgette 'Midnight' and lettuce 'Moonred' to spinach 'Red Kitten' and spicy mustard 'Red Giant'. Last year Jim began an observation choosing a range of trees for small gardens. This year he is adding to that with a range of fastigiate trees, which are perfect for a small garden as they don't create much shade and have a small footprint. And Brian, who is used to modest swathes of daffodils at Scone Palace, visits Grampian Growers near Montrose to find out how six million bunches of daffodils find their way from the fields of Angus to neat bunches ready to buy

In the Beechgrove Garden, after the success of the no-dig observation of last year, Jim is extending the trial into the polytunnel, comparing conventionally grown vegetables with easy-grow no-dig vegetable plots. Brian is in Armadale, helping Lesley Welsh and her two children to create a bespoke vegetable plot for the family. Lesley wants the children to be able to easily grow their own and take their own home-grown produce from fork to fork.Brian is also in Tranent, visiting Wattie Russell. Wattie was nominated as one of Scotland's Garden Heroes, and Brian visits to see why. Wattie's inspirational, but tightly packed, garden in Tranent is full of spring beauties with around 500 different pots of colour.

In the Beechgrove Garden, it's tomato time as Jim is growing a range of viewers' recommended favourite tomato varieties, using viewers' best methods for growing them.Carole visits young farmers James Reid and Rosa Bevan near Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, to see how they use permaculture techniques to grow veg in the most environmentally friendly way possible. And Carole is also in Garelochhead to take in the annual Scottish Rhododendron Society show, where she sees competitors showing off the best blooms from the vast range of vibrant varieties.