FILMING started yesterday for a new era of BBC Scotland's The Beechgrove Garden, which has been uprooted and is being replanted on a new site.

After 17 years in the half-acre back garden of the Aberdeen studio, the programme, which attracts almost 600,000 viewers every week during its annual April to September run, has moved to a larger and more versatile home at Brotherfield, on the outskirts of Aberdeen.

The idea for the garden was born when a BBC Scotland executive saw an American TV station broadcast a programme, The Victory Garden, from its backyard in Boston.

The 1978 Beechgrove Garden was based on that idea, blossomed, and is now one of the station's longest running programmes.

The new site is at Grampian Regional Council's Brotherfield Nursery, near Westhill, where five acres have been leased to ensure that, unlike at Beechgrove, all the much admired features will not have to be dug up over and over again.