Gardener's World - Demotivating?

MrsRogers

I think many of these comments are very unfair. Its important GW caters for everyone of all gardening interests and experiance. Also to be fair most episodes are only 30 min long!!

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

No offence to Monty as I think he is a decent chap - but what pes me off about GW is the 'and here are the ***s that I sowed last month' when there was no mention of sowing them last month. For newbies - it is very misleading and that's why they get motivated.

Each week there should be a 'this is what you should or could be sowing/potting on/harvesting now' section...so that people don't get left behind....

Garenders World Magazine has an excellet section on this each month. You can also get loads of gardening books from the libary.. Gardening isnt about getting everything handed to you on a plate its about trial and error and learning for yourself.

howardtog wrote: »

Apart from that woman Carol Klein who is enough to put anyone off gardening and never tells you everything view GW as inspirational.The borders and plots are always weed free and the soil is in excellent heart because the hidden team keeps them so.Also no expense is spared......I use xxx compost with such and such added.In the last episode he spent £20 on 3 plants...heaven knows how much he spent on Dahlias
However my tomatoes are at least as good as MDs so there and I raise them from seed andgrow them in my home made compost and last year grew 147 lbs in my admittedly large greenhouse.Ive been practising for 30 years
As someone else said GW and Id add seed catalogues are garden !!!!!! but do provide good ideas from time to time.So be inspired but remember reality!!

A little unfair Carol Klein is a fantastic plants women and you can tell by her fingernails she does the majority of the work in her garden if not all.

cootambear wrote: »

Well

Top Gear has never knocked on my door to do an in depth on the banger I drive

You are better off with gardeners question time on Beeb radio 4 -the audience come up with their problems for the experts to solve

I second this .... Gardeners QTime is great for your problem solving and another outlet to learn from.

If one thing Gardeners World does do is it encourages you to have a ago and never has it said our gardens have to be perfect. Monty admits when he has neglected things and does say that xyz should have been pruned but he never got round to it etc

A garden will always be a work in progress thats nature and thats the fun of it.

Sorry about the rant just think some people were missing the point and being unfair.

Mee

hostie wrote: »

I used to love gardeners world but im afraid Monty gives me the creeps and every episode seemed to be all about him so I stopped watching. I did like his lovely garden though. I find the big old gardens inspiring.
I did like carol and that other chap but they didn't seem to be on much.

Yes, ditto!

maypole

tryingtoruletheworld wrote: »

It does demotivate me a little sometimes, but I think that is mainly down to the green eyed monster!

I get fed up of the lack of cash, tiny uneven concreted yard for a garden in a rented house, and the lack of opportunity to make things as I would like them! I just want a small house and garden that I can do what I like with, and then I watch GW with that huge green oasis and get a little jealous! hehe

I buy loads from the car boot and I get garden centre vouchers for Christmas, I buy mainly perennials so they flower for years and can be split. I also go straight to the "sick bay" area in the garden centre and buy plants that have gone over so to speak, for a fraction of the usual cost, I cut them down and they all survive.

I love buying plants but I also love a bargain.

dreaming

I used to find that Alys Fowler's voice grated on me a bit and her programme (The Edible Garden) was spoiled (imo) by the style that seems to think all viewers can only concentrate for 30 seconds at a time so it jumped about a bit and had animated inserts, and "soundbites", etc. However, my daughter bought me The Edible Garden book for Mothers day and I couldn't put it down. To be true there are a few things in there that didn't interest me, but the explanations of the different veg. she gew was so clear, and at the end there is a section on preserving food, and recipes - definitely worth a read.
The problem for me is that there aren't enough gardening programmes on so if you don't like a presenter's style then you're stuck. I actually liked the last series of GW (I know people thought that it was "dumbed down" and some didn't like Toby) as it showed a garden being built from scratch (albeit a very large garden), and especially I liked the bit where the 3 presenters (Toby/Alys/Joe) showed their different designs for the "front and back gardens" plots. I never used to like Monty much, but am enjoying this series of GW but feel it doesn't much cater for the ordinary grower. It can be quite inspirational though and I have to admit to watching the other week's programme where Monty went to Monet's garden in Giverny(?). Now that is my idea of garden !!!!!! (so much so that I have recorded it and watched it several times).

howardtog

I find Mrs Klein superficial.Whilst she gushes at great length she never expalins what she is doing.Clearly others find her appealing and that is fine. I look away when she is on.
I do not hold her accent against her I suspect she is Lancastrian,As someone from a county north of Lancashire but south of the border I wouldnot let her more southern rendition of English stand in the way of my opinion of her as a gardening presenter .
As I see from other posts on other presenters there is a strong Marmite factor in play.
Also I must plead guilty to an error I have been practising growing tomatoes for 53 years...about on par with some of the gardening presenters.
Off to sharpen the secateurs and put my padded gardening jacket on !!

a1cat

howardtog wrote: »

I find Mrs Klein superficial.Whilst she gushes at great length she never expalins what she is doing.Clearly others find her appealing and that is fine. I look away when she is on.
I do not hold her accent against her I suspect she is Lancastrian,As someone from a county north of Lancashire but south of the border I wouldnot let her more southern rendition of English stand in the way of my opinion of her as a gardening presenter .
As I see from other posts on other presenters there is a strong Marmite factor in play.
Also I must plead guilty to an error I have been practising growing tomatoes for 53 years...about on par with some of the gardening presenters.
Off to sharpen the secateurs and put my padded gardening jacket on !!

Did you see her solo series (a few months ago) or her sections on plant families on GW last year where she certainly went into detail?

Credibility old chap, not lacking. :cool:

tryingtoruletheworld

Thanks Maypole, I do manage to find myself some amazing bargains, but am a bit limited with perrenials as I am living in rented accomodation and have moved around a lot in recent years. As I never know what the next garden will be like, I try not to end up with too many plants that have to be kept each year. Although, saying that, the garden pots and plants seem to increase more than the boxes and furniture each time I move!

newsgroup_monkey

tryingtoruletheworld wrote: »

It does demotivate me a little sometimes, but I think that is mainly down to the green eyed monster!

I get fed up of the lack of cash, tiny uneven concreted yard for a garden in a rented house, and the lack of opportunity to make things as I would like them! I just want a small house and garden that I can do what I like with, and then I watch GW with that huge green oasis and get a little jealous! hehe

Er, I'm not in a far away place from you - my LL has decided that shingle is best and that's all we have. Nowhere to grow at all.

However, we've used it to our advantage (see my 99p shop thread). We buy stuff when we see it cheap. We get our seeds at the end of the year (often for under 10 pence). We are also very lucky that friends of ours offered us half an allotment - If I'm honest, all that costs me is time!

We've got lots of free pots from homebase (they always seem to be chucking them out), freecycle for bigger ones and the only thing I seem to spend money on is compost.

If you have some time, check out http://www.landshare.net where you can find out if someone has some land for you to toil (and it's free!).

Anyways, getting back to OP (oh, hang on, that's me!) we've spent the day hammering the allotment (where did all these weeds come from?)

We've decided that as the chard was half grown, we might as well plant it even though it'll probably go to seed in the next month (although we could collect the seed I guess). Same with the Pak Choi.

On the positive side, we've planted brussels out, leeks, some more scallys, mange tout, more dwarf beans, more beetroot, sweetcorn and another squash. If I can get squash to take (so far 5 out of 6 died) they go nuts! I've got 6 fruit growing so far on the spaghetti squash and I know how that grows once it starts fruiting!

Don't seem to be having so much luck with cukes (they were absolutely battered by the wind).

So tomatoes I may not have, but I have a professional looking raised bed right now (carrots, lettuce and onions) which I should have taken a picture of - Monty would have been proud!

Mee

maypole wrote: »

I also go straight to the "sick bay" area in the garden centre and buy plants that have gone over so to speak, for a fraction of the usual cost, I cut them down and they all survive.

I love buying plants but I also love a bargain.

Same here, bought some very healthy looking plants discounted (to 50p) in Homebase yesterday... but even when I benefit it makes me so sad to see the utter waste and desolation in some so called garden centres.

a1cat

Homebase is NOT a garden centre any more than Morrisons is a garden centre :D:D:D:D

Just a retailer, no gardening expertise.