Ponds and Stumperies

Charlie Dimmock campaigns to put ponds back in gardens. She finds out the importance of ponds for wildlife and takes the plunge in a new style of water gardening - the swimming pond. Charlie also finds out how a community in East Yorkshire has come together to breathe new life into their village pond. The lakes, small ponds and water features of Nottingham Trent University are the starting point for her revival, and Charlie gives her step-by-step guide to building a wildlife pond and bog garden, from the initial design stage, right through to planting up.

Chris Beardshaw wants to return a Victorian curiosity, the stumpery, to our gardens. Similar to rock gardens but created from upturned tree stumps, logs and roots, stumperies were created to display the spoils of intrepid Victorian plant hunters. On his revival Chris discovers how fern fever swept the nation in the 19th century. He meets a man in North Wales who is as fascinated by ferns as he is and sets off on a woodland trail to see the stumpery as nature intended. Chris bases his campaign at the most famous stumpery in the country, created by HRH the Prince of Wales, in the grounds of Highgrove House. Throughout the show, he creates his own mini-stumpery using his favourite ferns to full effect and shows how to grow mushrooms on a log.