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Let me explain the 'Beechgrove' bit. When I started radio broadcasting in the 1970's, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Aberdeen studios were located in a beautiful old granite villa situated on Beechgrove Terrace in the city's Rosemount area. The television programme was created in the studio's back garden - an area of about half an acre, hence the title. It is said that the television programme idea came after a senior ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ engineer had been to Boston, Mass. to study some aspects of public service broadcasting in the USA and was shown the very successful which, as far as I know, is still going having moved house!

By the 1990's, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ had developed plans to demolish the old house, build a brand new fit-for-purpose modern broadcast facility and SELL the land to help pay for the development! So, after 15 years, our television garden had to be re-located. My co-presenter and I were sent out to look at four or five alternative sites in and around the city of Aberdeen and we finally selected part of a redundant council tree nursery about 6 miles west of the city itself.

We started to create the garden on the new site in 1995 and 'moved in' at the start of the 1996 season, now with 1.5 acres to accommodate our ideas and plans assisted by a superb team of designers, architects and programme makers.

This was the very first garden constucted when we moved from the city centre garden to our current site in 1996.

It would be true to say that, at the outset, there were some concerns about locating the garden 'so far north' when four fifths of the Scottish population live in the Central Belt, a very wide corridor running easy-west roughly between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Looking at the map however, you will note that Aberdeenshire is roughly half way between Hadrians's Wall and the Pentland Firth, in other words - half way up the Scottish mainland! Suffice to say, these doubts proved to be groundless.

See what I mean, "what are you going to write about this week?" becomes an unintended history lesson! Well, at least you now know where I'm coming from and the key point is, because of these broadcasting opportunities (and writing weekly for the local daily newspaper) I am never short of things to say. Here's another example, in front of me right now is a list of questions sent in by viewers following the broadcast of programme 11.

Aucuba japonica 'picturata'

Without a doubt we are still dealing with concerns about winter damage and consistently, my colleagues and I have advocated patience. Remove dead bits but, unless the plant is in a key location, let it be, you never know...! It has happened in my own garden, with an Aucuba. Planted in the spring of 2010, it grew reasonably well through the summer but the winter of 10/11 nearly killed it. In March this year, I tidied it up, removing the dead leaves, it was a sorry sight but this week I can see that it is on the mend. I'm glad I did not act precipitately, now a little bit of TLC will help it to recover fully whilst with everyone else, I'm hoping that we don't get another severe winter in 11/12.

Jim McColl presents ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland's .