Television’s Beechgrove Garden presenter Jim McColl dies

Beechgrove Garden presenter Jim McColl has died at the age of 88, it has been announced.

He hosted the BBC Scotland’s gardening programme since it began in 1978, retiring after 41 years on screen in 2019.

Hugely popular with fellow gardeners across Scotland, he described the pastime as “part of the fabric of our lives”.

Colleagues on the programme have paid tribute to him, describing him as “a local hero first and a Scottish national treasure next.”

The Beechgrove Garden began after a BBC Scotland producer took inspiration from a similar programme in Boston, USA.

The original garden, which was planned, tended and managed throughout the year, was based at the corporation’s Aberdeen headquarters on Beechgrove Terrace.

The programme offered a stark contrast to other TV gardening shows, thanks to the challenges of the northern growing season

Together with his co-presenter George Barron, McColl led the transformation of the site from scratch in 1978.

McColl was originally from Kilmarnock where his father was a gardening supervisor responsible for all the parks in Kilmarnock.

He told a BBC documentary marking his 80th birthday in 2015 that gardening was “part of the fabric of our lives”.

“You are much influenced by your environment and that was part of mine,” he said.

He had a career in academic horticulture, teaching at a number of universities and colleges before working for the ministry of agriculture, where he was based in Leicester advising advising commercial growers.

But an urge to educate his two children in Scotland led to him moving with his wife Billie to Aberdeen where he taught at what was then called North College.

He also worked on setting up a waste energy project at Glen Garioch distillery in Aberdeenshire before making the move into television.

The programme was an enormous success with audiences, leading to live shows and a radio spin-off.

The garden was moved to the outskirts of Aberdeen in the 1990s, allowing the team to begin the task of creating it all over again.

George Barron left the programme in 1984 but McColl continued in his role with a number of other presenters including Bill Torrance, Chris Beardshaw and Carole Baxter.

The programme is produced for BBC Scotland by the independent production company Tern TV.

The McColl family said: “It’s with a heavy heart we share the passing of Jim McColl, husband, dad and grandad who passed peacefully yesterday.

“He will be hugely missed not only by us but by his friends, colleagues and a nation who he shared his passion for gardening with over four decades at The Beechgrove Garden.”

BBC Scotland’s acting director Geraldine McCartney paid tribute to McColl.

“His expert gardening advice and wisdom on The Beechgrove Garden was invaluable to green-fingered viewers over the decades and he will be greatly missed by all,” she said.

“Loved by viewers across the nation, he’ll be especially missed in the North East, where he was a much-cherished part of the BBC Scotland and Tern TV teams for many years. Our thoughts are with Jim’s family, friends and colleagues.”

Harry Bell, managing director of Tern TV: “Here’s to ‘our’ lovely Jim, who for four decades presented The Beechgrove Garden for us with a spring in his step, a twinkle in his eye and a kind word for all folk.

“You’ll be fair missed, Jim. You were a local hero first and a Scottish national treasure next. Thank you for your immense contribution to gardening, broadcasting and steering so many of us on life’s muddy paths.”

After leaving The Beechgrove Garden, McColl continued to write a gardening column for Aberdeen’s P&J newspaper.

He announced his retirement from that in September 2022 after more than 20 years in the paper. He told his readers:

“Retirement from the weekly challenge comes at a time when old age is beginning to be a little more difficult to cope with, I even have to have help with some jobs in the garden nowadays.

“Like everyone else, I just have to face up to the fact that I’m getting old.”

He signed off with a final prediction:

“Our biggest challenge in the coming years will be climate change with Mother Nature playing all sorts of tricks.

“I wish you all the best.”