Gardeners' World

 I'm beginning to get worried that my news provider is losing stuff as,
apart from one more or less casual mention within a post about
something else, I haven't seen any real talk about the new Gardeners'
World series and we're now just past episode 2.

So (assuming I haven't missed anything and apologies if I have), my
thoughts to, maybe, start a discussion:

I didn't like Monty the first time he presented but I'm enjoying his
style this time round. I didn't realise just how many different topics
he'd covered until I watched a second time. I think that presenting
from his own garden makes a real difference. The single presenter for
the bulk of the programme works for me, particularly as the topics are
what he'd be doing in his garden now anyway. The balance between veg
and non-veg is about right (I was worried about a bombardment of
organic veg growing!).

I'm a Carol Klein fan and the "interlude" of her visiting a garden
purely for the purpose of visiting it works well and the occasional
tip thrown into the segment is good.

The Joe/Rachel segment in episode 1 and the Rachel segment in episode
2 left me totally cold. I admit to some bias as when I heard that they
were going to be two of the presenters this series I was wishing that
the Beeb had kept Alys and lost Joe and wondering whether  Rachel was
there because cookery had Nigella! The idea of a visit to undertake
some clearup job is contrived and I didn't actually see much in the
way of advice on how to clear up. Visiting a garden because it used to
belong to Enid Blyton is fine; we all like (I hope) to visit others'
gardens to get ideas or simply to see them. But leave it at that; if
they want a segment about cleanups then reduce the walkaround and
concentrate on the cleanups. As it stands, if they want this second
non-Monty segment then I think they could do better by getting someone
like Roy Lancaster in to talk "in depth" about a particular plant. Or,
dare I say, Toby Buckland doing the same thing?

FWIW, I think that there does need to be a double "interruption" -
three segments of Monty with two interludes in between - ten minutes
of one person is enough for one go and there are only so many jumps
from topic to topic that can be made without the main thrust of the
programme seeming disjointed.

Thinking about the wider audience, I've been  getting deliveries of
bare root plants and some plug plants for a couple of weeks. The
latter have always been straightforward for me but it took me some
years to successfully learn how to deal with bare roots. I know of
people who struggle with the titchy little plugs. So for some it must
be a topical subject. And advice for those without a greenhouse would
be useful (remembering that there are downsides to the windowsill
approach). So some of the stuff for "learners" (of which I was one
once) wouldn't go amiss I think.

But overall, I think the two episodes so far look very promising.

So that's my half-penny's worth. What do others think?

Jake

 


I think you have summed it up very well, plenty of hands on info. Nice
to see he had a few weeds as well :-)

 online.de says...

  One of the aspects of Monty's garden that does relate to all, was that
it shows how much can be achieved at minimal cost; the lime walk grown
from 50p slips, the hedges and topiary grown from cuttings, the patchwork
paths made with odd slabs and bricks, and the home-made compost; ladders
up an apple tree which he planted very small just a few years ago.

 It's the complete opposite of
all those rushed instant gardens designed to ring up the tills for
sponsors and garden centres.
  

   Janet

 

I only caught the tail end of Fridays when he was in his potting shed
with the bulbs... (I liked his huge shelf system for pots!)
And then the pruning of his currant bushes.
I was left with the question of what to do with the prunings? Could
you stick them in some compost and would they root or are they best
dumping on the compost heap?
--
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Nice to have a proper gardening prog. back on the box, though I only
saw 10 mins of prog 1 thanks to rugby on TV here in Wales,
I also wondered why they have Joe and Rachel there, but didn't I
actualy see Rachel getring her hands dirty in the last prog?
As has already been said, it's nice to be in a garden that has grown
naturaly and not overnight with the aid of "Tons of Money"
I do wonder what Alan and B&Q will serve up on ITV
David Hill