Infuriated with Gardeners World

vfairbrass

Have just watched Gardeners World, in particular the first part about growing food for a family of four on an allotment. How did he manage to not only have ready access to piles of pallets, a forest of beautiful planks, barrowloads of compost and bark chippings but also appear to have his plot cleared and ready to go in a couple of hours. Why did he rotavate the land when he knew it was full of perennial weeds and then moan about having to clear the weed pieces?
I have an allotment and it is really hard work to start with but I guess that wouldn't make good TV.

mjr600

It's TV !

It's not real life, 90% of people who watch are just dreamers, it's only the 10% who understand how much work goes into a garden.

olly300

I don't have an allotment but as soon as I heard the patch had Marestail on it and he had used a rotavator I knew it was bad gardening TV. I mean they are not going to show him weeding the Marestail every week.

A._Badger

I'm afraid I stopped watching it (having previously been an avid fan) after poor old Geoff Hamilton died. From the moment they anointed Alan Titchmarsh his successor, it was clear that the programme was henceforth going to be personality driven - and so it proved to be, reaching absolute depths when novices were on the programme, simply because they ticked some box the BBC needed ticking. Rachel de Thame? Please!

But in terms of what they set out to do, the BBC's gardening programmes are no different from their endless cookery shows - most of which are watched by people whose cooking skills begin and end with opening an M&S ready meal.

It's about mass entertainment, and if people pick up a bit of knowledge along the way, the BBC thinks it has done a good job and justified the hated licence fee.

MoJo

I have just read "View From A Shed" and I can imagine allotment holders up and down the country gathering on their allotments this morning to discuss in disgust the BBC portrayal of getting an allotment.
I simply can't believe that those beautiful planks he was loading into his van would have been free to Joe Public!
It was all a load of tripe.

lindseykim13

i couldn't believe how he decided he wanted an allotment and then was fussy about which one he picked! we had to wait on a waiting list and got no choice about which plot or site. what annoyed me was the amount of space he wasted with that stupid layout i'm not an expert but know that they are laid out in rows for a reason. There is no way he's going to reach the middle of that diamond when he wants to plant. Al that free compost too i want some!

alanobrien

To be honest i thought it was funny. You get an allotment then as if by magic along comes a digger to clear it followed by piles of (expensive) free wood for raised beds.
Then piles of free compost and bark chippings. This must be the Harry Potter allotment company.

Keep in mind his forte appears to be design rather than a plantsman
this seems apparant by his past projects on GW and his conversations with the other allotment holders. Gardening - i dont think so, but it does have some entertainment value at least.

mary43

I only caught a bit of it but I think the general idea with the programme is that Joe Swift is a complete novice when it comes to allotments and growing veg -maybe thats why they're doing this, so we can see someone else making the same mistakes we could easily make.
Missed the bit about getting the wood for free.............does sometimes happen I know, if someone on freecycle is giving away stuff but its hit and miss.
What I couldn't work out was why there was no shed - even on the established allotment. We don't have one now but my first OH did and he had a shed..........somewhere too lock tools away, sit when it rained and he used to take the kids with him. A lot of stuff was sorted out in his little shed.

Debt_Free_Chick

A._Badger wrote: »

I'm afraid I stopped watching it (having previously been an avid fan) after poor old Geoff Hamilton died.

OMG, so did I!!!

Dear Geoff always taught me something I didn't know and had unusual plants. Now, GW is effectively "garden !!!!!!" ..... a kind of vaguely green-fingered Hello magazine

vfairbrass

MoJo wrote: »

I have just read "View From A Shed" and I can imagine allotment holders up and down the country gathering on their allotments this morning to discuss in disgust the BBC portrayal of getting an allotment.
quote]

Our site is a mixture of long-time allotment holders and newer enthusiasts and the consensus this morning was deep cynicism about the programme. Maybe because we aren't a local authority site we're not used to the pampering that Swift's site seemed to get - land cleared, freebies galore - I wonder where it was? And how far he was driving from Hackney. It would be interesting to see what happens to the plot next to Swift's - if a normal person takes it on.
And I loved 'View from a shed' - certainly reflected my experience of allotments.

ukjoel

Oh - I loved it - Best piece of comedy I have seen for years.
First he avoids the 3 year queues as an allotment mysteriously turns up
Then the council dig it up for him
Then he finds some old wood thats being thrown out. We watched this on Sky plus and if you play it slow you can see the price label still on the wood.
Then he buys a shed on ebay and doesnt even pay the full amount
Then he mysteriously loses his environmentally friendly bike and replaces it with a van which he uses to transport a Fork and a camera around
His mate builds him a shed.
He takes lots of pictures
The council deliver his compost 20 metres from his plot
Then they bring him some woodchip.

I cant wait until next week till the scantily clad ladies arrived to do all the digging for him and his magic beans turn into prizewinning crops.

If all allotments are like that then I will have two.

The old blokes (on the next patch) comment about there being a reason Geoff Hamilton used to plant in four ft rows had me laughing so much my wife asked me to leave the room.

Then Carol comes on with her ' eco couple' and it got even worse.

I suspect they need to fill some time as Monty is spending far too much time with Alice and not enough in the garden. Cant we just give Alice 20 minutes of her own - she seems competent and let Joe go back to his vegtable box.

The BBC have tried to go all trendy but missed the boat completely.