Clips
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THE SCIENCE OF SEED STORAGE
If you like the idea of growing your own plants for free, then collecting and storing the seed from plants in your garden is a must. Waiting for the seed to ripen properly and then collecting on a dry day is the start of the process. If you then carefully and thoroughly dry the seed, using a suitable desiccant like silica gel or dried rice grains, many seeds of garden plants can then be stored at very low temperatures and last for years.
BBC gardening guide on seed collecting -
EXPERT FEATURED – Dr Robin Probert
Dr Robin Probert is an international expert in seed collection and storage at the World renowned Millennium Seed Bank – the biggest seed storage facility in the world. He’s also a passionate gardener and helped Carol to hone her self-taught seed collecting and storage skills with expert scientific advice.
Kew Millennium Seed Bank conservation project -
UNDERSTANDING YOUR SOIL
An understanding of the ratio of your soil’s main ingredients will help you discover which soil type you have and unearth the answers to which types of plants will grow best in your garden. Some plants will only thrive in light sandy soils, others need heavy clay soils to grow well, others prefer a fine silty or loamy soil with lots of organic matter.
BBC gardening guide on soil testing
Try this simple experiment –
Take a large clear container that has a tight lid, such as a jam or preserving jar.
Fill it 1/2 full with water.
Add your garden soil until almost full
Close the lid tightly
Shake the container well for a full minute
Leave the container somewhere completely still and undisturbed
Once the soil has completely settled it will have separated into distinct layers (this can take as little as a few minutes for the heavy sand and silt layers, and up to a week for all of the tiny clay particles to fully settle!)
The bottom layer is the heaviest constituent – sand
The next layer up is silt
The next layer up will consist of clay particles: the higher up the container the smaller the particles
Organic matter such as compost and humus will be floating right at the top of the container at the surface
These layers will give you a clear picture of the proportions of sand, silt, clay and vital organic matter in your garden soil – and help to discover what main soil type you have. -
EXPERT FEATURED – Prof. Keith Goulding
Professor Keith Goulding is the 2009 & 2010 President of the British Society of Soil Science.
British Society of Soil Science -
THE AMAZING STRUCTURE OF LEAVES
Plant leaves are incredibly diverse, complex and intricate structures. When using a high powered electron microscope to explore them fascinating and amazing structures hidden to the naked eye are revealed particularly on the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf.
More detailed information on leaf structure at Wikipedia
Internally, however, the basic structure of the leaves of many of the flowering plants we grow in our gardens are very similar. -
EXPERT FEATURED – Kim Findlay
Kim Findlay is head of bio-imaging at the John Innes Centre and specialises in using an electron microscope. Beams of electrons are used in an electron microscope to create 3-D images of a specimen. This enables higher magnifications than a light microscope, and allows us to see much smaller objects in incredible detail.
More incredible electron microscope images of plants -
THE WEATHER IN YOUR GARDEN
Weather and climate are slightly different things. Weather can be described as the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure. It can also refer to the effects of adverse or destructive atmospheric conditions, such as high winds or heavy rain. But climate refers to the meteorological conditions that prevail in a particular place over time.
BBC Plant Finder
So weather can change from one moment to the next, but climate changes over longer periods of time and is cumulative.
However even across an area the size of an average back garden, the climate can be extremely varied, and by understanding the different micro-climates that exist, you can have greater success with the plants that you grow in different locations, and find the right plant for the right place. -
LEAFY HORMONES - Plant Growth Regulators
Plants have hormones similar to animals; they control growth and development and are vital to reactions to stimuli during its life cycle.
More about plant hormones
Unlike animals, plants lack glands that produce and secrete these hormones. They are produced within the cells of plants in various key areas of growth and development like shoot and root tips for example.
They are more commonly known as Plant Growth Regulators, and there are 5 main groups:
Auxins
Cytokinins
Abscisic acid
Gibberellins
Ethylene
They often work together in tiny concentrations to promote and influence the growth, development, and specialization of cells and tissues. -
EXPERT FEATURED – Dr Hilary Rogers
Dr Hilary Rogers works in the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University and her work specialises in understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling flower development and plant cell division.
More about Dr Hilary Rogers and her research interests -
‘FLOWERS’ and ‘INFLORESCENCES’
Throughout the 2010 series of Gardeners’ World, Carol has been exploring a different botanical plant family each week. Historically, botanists used floral characteristics to determine similarities and differences between groups and species of plants. Often what appears to be one flower, can be a complex arrangement of numerous individual flowers all carefully structured to form an ‘inflorescence’. Recognising and identifying the shapes and forms of the many types of inflorescence is a science in itself!
There’s more information on inflorescences at Wikipedia -
EXPERT FEATURED – Dr Jeff Ollerton
Dr Jeff Ollerton is a senior lecturer in ecology and plant pollinator relationships at the University of Northampton.
For a more in depth look at his research group's interests
Credits
- Presenter
- Carol Klein
- Director
- Andy Vernon
- Producer
- Andy Vernon
- Executive Producer
- Gill Tierney
