Join the Beechgrove Garden team for the new series beginning on Wednesday 1st of April 2009.


The Presenter

Jim McColl began co-presenting The Beechgrove Garden with George Barron in 1978. Awarded an MBE in 1996, Jim is actively involved in the horticultural world. He is a regular guest on The Beechgrove Potting Shed with Frieda Morrison on BBC Radio Scotland.

Jim says, "Programme-making isn't for everyone. You have to be able to cope with the rhythm, this business of doing the job in wee bits and pieces then waiting around for the camera to get ready. I'm happy to wander off and do a wee bit of weeding or pruning, pot a few plants. It's all about teamwork - when I go out with a cameraman and someone speaks to us, the camera crew laugh along too - they're part of it.

In the nicest possible way, we've become part of the wallpaper. We've tended not to be the followers of fashion, nor is the show personality-driven. We don't grab headlines like Lily Allen, but we're doing a job which we know is appreciated and we're happy to be part of the scene. It doesn't seem like 30 years, except when I look at my face in the mirror in the morning. My wife says I shouldn't let them do close-ups!

It's a great business to be in, gardening and horticulture. It's a universal thing that everyone wants to come home to a nice garden. People josh with us wherever we go and I reply that even gardeners need a day off.

I get a real buzz fom sharing information and my expertise with other people. And in return, their enthusiasm carries us along. You can get a knock back in gardening when the weather is terrible, but then you can't wait till the next year so you can get back at it. Gardeners are a great bunch, they're the sanest folk on earth!"

The Producer

Gwyneth Hardy, producer of The Beechgrove Garden for Tern Television who make the programme for BBC Scotland said:

"It's a huge privilege to care for what, to most people, is a Scottish institution. More than a privilege, I'd say it is an absolutele delight. In making television, many programmes contain difficult or controversial subject matter, but Beechgrove is a gentle, organic part of family life. Even amongst the young it has a healthy cult status, with the Dr Who Trail still on You Tube.

I have been directing Beechgrove since about 1994 and have been its producer since 1996. I think that makes me the longest serving producer. I was a child, you understand, when I started .... Tern have had the contract to produce it since 1992 and, as a company, we are hugely proud of the programme.

It's a privilege to visit wonderful places and people all over Scotland allow us in to see their lovely and often private gardens so that the rest of us can gain inspiration from what gardeners can do in sometimes the most testing or challenging of conditions.

The Beechgrove garden itself is 2.5 acres sited on an inhospitable, exposed, sloping site 7 miles west of Aberdeen. These are pretty tough conditions for a garden so our hope is that people can take inspiration from what we manage to do there. If we can grow it then take heart, you can grow it too. The garden is essentially a big green studio and was created with the viewer in mind. The themed gardens are all domestic-sized back garden plots and represent themes we understand viewers are interested in. Examples are the low maintenance garden, the garden for life (a wildlife-friendly garden), the cut flower plot and the seaside garden.

Half the garden is given over to delicious produce and we grow and test all manner of fruit and vegetables. Last year, we proved that you can, in fact, grow sweet potatoes in Scotland, against the wisdom from some areas which says they can't be grown anywhere in the the UK, let alone Scotland.

Gardening is good for you. That's a fact. It's a holistic thing, good for you from the feeling of well-being and from being outside getting exercise, to the delight in growing things. And what better to be able to grow something and then eat it? That's enough from me. I can go on and on and talk for Scotland on the merits of the Beechgrove Garden!"

For further information, including factsheets, go to The Beechgrove Garden website.

Related links:
Beechgrove Garden: www.beechgrove.co.uk
BBC Gardening: www.bbc.co.uk/gardening.