Gardeners World

[Trevor Appleton]

For the last 17 years since Geoff Hamilton sadly departed this world, our
household expression for watching GW at 8.30 on a Friday has been putting
'Geoff' on. No one could replace him and certainly not Titch or Toby, or
even Montys first charge of the helm.

However I can finally now say that I feel we have someone I like equally as
much as Geoff - good old Monty!!

[Mike]

"Trevor Appleton" wrote in message
news:17410$52224b2b$50e5af86$27...@news.eurofeeds.com...

[Bob Hobden]

"Trevor Appleton" wrote

I'm not sure. I have noticed that if we go out I don't bother to record the
programme or watch it on iPlayer whereas with Geoff it was compulsive
viewing. I do think Monty is a good presenter though.
My beef with Monty is that he is strictly organic and won't even mention
chemicals, makes his own compost which few can and decries peat based
compost which we all know is the best for plants, and has a field for a
garden. All that must make it very difficult for most "new" potential
gardeners watching who have, maybe, 30ft by 20ft as a garden and no room for
a compost bin.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

[stuart noble]

On 01/09/2013 08:47, Martin wrote:

> I wish we could say the same.
>
> Do you watch Beechgrove?
> http://www.thebeechgrovegarden.com/
>

Having just watched his prog on Japanese gardens, Monty comes across as
a bit of a fruitcake. Zen doesn't work here because there's no one to
spend all day maintaining perfection. Anyway, a rock in the middle of a
load of gravel doesn't do it for me.

[Janet]

In article <b8g9dm...@mid.individual.net>, Bo...@invalid.com says...

>
> "Trevor Appleton" wrote
> >
> >For the last 17 years since Geoff Hamilton sadly departed this world, our
> >household expression for watching GW at 8.30 on a Friday has been putting
> >'Geoff' on. No one could replace him and certainly not Titch or Toby, or
> >even Montys first charge of the helm.
> >
> >However I can finally now say that I feel we have someone I like equally as
> >much as Geoff - good old Monty!!
>
>
> I'm not sure. I have noticed that if we go out I don't bother to record the
> programme or watch it on iPlayer whereas with Geoff it was compulsive
> viewing. I do think Monty is a good presenter though.
> My beef with Monty is that he is strictly organic and won't even mention
> chemicals, makes his own compost which few can and decries peat based
> compost which we all know is the best for plants, and has a field for a
> garden.

At least it really is his own home garden; where he's lived and
gardened for decades, long before he started presenting GW from it.

All that must make it very difficult for most "new" potential
> gardeners watching who have, maybe, 30ft by 20ft as a garden and no room for
> a compost bin.

You may have forgotten, or never knew, that Geoff Hamilton's TV garden
at Barnsdale was 5 acres. He acquired and developed it for the purpose
of GW.The (many) apparent "small suburban plot" areas shown on GW, were
created for the purposes of TV broadcast.

Janet.

[David Hill]

And a british suburban garden would do nothing for Zen Buddhists

[Sacha]

Ray always maintains that Japanese gardens made by Westerners don't
work properly and he may have something. We saw a beauty at Huntington
Gardens in California but it was designed by a Japanese and I'm pretty
sure it was maintained by one, too.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

[Nick Maclaren]

In article <b8glmu...@mid.individual.net>,

On the other hand, when I first saw the gardens in Japan, I realised
where the 19th revolution typified by the Cornish gardens of that
era came from. The Cornish always having been a maritime people,
of course! I am pretty sure that I saw the original of the pond
at Burncoose somewhere in Tokyo, though I now forget at which of
the gardens.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

[Sacha]

It's so long since we've been to Burncoose that I don't even remember a
pond! Charlie might know more.

[sacha]

On 2013-09-01 10:34:19 +0000, Jake said:

> On Sat, 31 Aug 2013 20:59:32 +0100, "Trevor Appleton"
> <tre...@woldsweather.co.uk> wrote:
>

> I really tried to like Monty, at least his incarnation 2. But if I
> want to be preached at, I'll go to church! I no longer watch the
> program. I used to record it just to watch Carol Klein's bit but now
> find, without the interesting "wrap" either side of her segment, her
> exuberance is a bit too much to handle.
>
> But those who are "on" Twitter, might care to follow the hashtag
> #shoutyhalfhour while the programme's on air. The discussion is often
> illuminating and entertaining, especially if Monty digs a hole!
>
> Thank God for Beechgrove!

Is that what the "shouty half hour" is all about! I did wonder but have
never explored further. I'll take a look!

[stuart noble]

I quite like the one in Holland Park (West London) but, again, it needs
more tending than anyone can afford to give it. In a way I suppose it
sums up the Brits just as zen reflects the unbelievable orderliness of
the Japanese.

[Spider]

I also find that I am increasingly enjoying Monty's garden and gardening
*but* not as Gardeners' World. It's Monty's garden. We are all a bit
nosey about what happens in someone else's garden, and Long Meadow
fronted by Monty is great at showing that. Nigel's pretty good, too!
He has his own following, I believe. However, I would like someone to
come along and do what St. Geoff did, which was decorative and
productive gardening on a more suburban scale and, indeed, on a budget -
at least some of the time. I know Monty's garden is divided into
smaller gardens, which helps a bit, but they're not 'gardening from
scratch' *and* they're possibly a bit grandiose for many people.

We certainly need a prime time gardening programme (not 'show') to give
us a mix of gardening types, some small construction projects, and lots
of information about plants *with their names* so that we can learn and
be inspired. I confess I loved Toby Buckland's handling of GW and wish
the BBC had left him at the helm to work in his own way. Alas, it was
not to be.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

[Sacha]

The process of the tending is part of the Zen experience and I think
you're probably right that raking gravel and placing boulders 'just
so', doesn't go along with our outlook generally. ;-)

[Derek]

On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:06:06 +0100, Spider <spi...@invalid.com> wrote:


> I confess I loved Toby Buckland's handling of GW and wish
>the BBC had left him at the helm to work in his own way.

I agree, but he did get a lot of stick from this newsgroup, I still
watch GW, love Beechcroft, and this summer finally got to visit
'Barnsdale' a great day out, (except for the Garden Center that is on
site, which was poor)

[Chris J Dixon]

Janet wrote:

> You may have forgotten, or never knew, that Geoff Hamilton's TV garden
>at Barnsdale was 5 acres. He acquired and developed it for the purpose
>of GW.The (many) apparent "small suburban plot" areas shown on GW, were
>created for the purposes of TV broadcast.
>

An interesting place to visit. I was surprised how really small
some of those plots are. I never quite saw the point of a lawn
whose diameter was about the same as my outstretched arms.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
ch...@cdixon.me.uk

Plant amazing Acers.

[David Hill]

It seems as if a lot of the moans about Monty come from the older
members who have been watching GW for many years some from Percy
Throwers days, that means that we have seen the same info delivered in
many ways by a number of presenters, and we all have our favourite from
the past.
A lot of the info is there for the newer gardeners, and whilst he
doesn't talk about using peat and chemicals I find his presentation good.
As far as chemicals are concerned it's easy to recommend something, but
"Our friends" in Europe are probably going to remove it in the next few
months.

[Spider]

On 02/09/2013 07:43, Derek wrote:

Oh, I'm very disappointed to hear about Barnsdale's garden centre. I
would love to visit it some day and I'd rather hoped the gc would be
brilliant. Perhaps it will improve following customer feedback.

[Spider]

Thankfully, although Monty doesn't recommend chemicals, we've all got
our own gardeners' world here in urg, where we can not only be given an
appropriate chemical's name but, very often, information about how
effective it is and tips about better application based on a real
gardener's use of it and not the sales pitch on the packaging.

[Mike]

A question to the Monty Don knockers. Does your TV have a button on it like
the one on my TV? I use it to kill the programmes where they are either
watching or talking about 22 men kicking a bag of wind about

Mike





"Jake" wrote in message news:7h2929t5manr04mlv...@4ax.com...

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 09:38:05 +0100, David Hill
<da...@abacus-nurseries.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>It seems as if a lot of the moans about Monty come from the older
>members who have been watching GW for many years some from Percy
>Throwers days, that means that we have seen the same info delivered in
>many ways by a number of presenters, and we all have our favourite from
>the past.

But have we seen the same info? I don't remember the likes of Percy
Thrower or Clay Jones taking off their shirts and ties (and jackets
and waistcoats sometimes) and digging out ponds and streams.

And let's not forget that Saint Geoff was promoting organic, chemical
free gardening before it became the "in thing". He introduced me to
coir and, as a result, I've not bought a bag of peat since, only the
occasional peat-containing compost.

And don't forget "hypa-tufa" as he called it - making your own
limestone-like rockery stone instead of stripping that out from
quarries.

The point was that he did not preach at us, he talked almost with us.
And Barnsdale developed with the programme (as others have said) and
we got things from scratch, not a continuum of Geoff's own garden. To
some extent, though nowhere near as much, Alan T developed his garden
a bit but I'll agree he was no Geoff (as he said himself).

I'll skip over Monty's first incarnation which, IIRC, was a ratings
disaster for the programme (though glad stint ended I was sorry about
the cause). Toby B's stint was a disaster not necessarily because of
the presenters but because of the format adopted. He had no chance.
But my personal jury is still out as to whether the baby was thrown
out with the bath water.

>A lot of the info is there for the newer gardeners, and whilst he
>doesn't talk about using peat and chemicals I find his presentation good.

The info is there if the newer gardener wants to plant only the plants
he has, to have a "jewel garden" and has inherited a patch with lots
of trees, miles of hedges and so on. Most newer gardeneners with small
suburban gardens will never be able to plant hundreds of bulbs along a
tree shaded garden path. It is also presumptuous to assume that
gardeners will always have a potting shed and greenhouse.

We must agree to differ on his presentational style which I compare
with a bad priest's overlong Sunday sermon.

And by refusing to even mention peat and chemicals, indeed by
misinforming ("the only way to kill lily beetle....") he loses a great
opportunity to educate newer gardeners about how, if they must use
chemicals, to use them safely, about the pros and cons of peat use. So
the newer gardener who has faced an invasion of lily beetle will
notice a display of Provado on the shelf, see it kills lily beetle and
will probably not bother to read the small print on the back and so
spray at midday when the bees are flying rather than at dusk when the
newer gardeners probably want to watch TV, not garden!

For me, every presenter from Percy to Toby has, in some way, added to
the programme, added to my knowledge and moved forward. Monty has
taken away and moved backward.


--
Cheers, Jake
=======================================
URGling from the east end of Swansea Bay in between
yanking up ever-appearing clumps of Himalayan balsam.

[Derek]

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:15:21 +0100, Spider <spi...@invalid.com> wrote:

>Oh, I'm very disappointed to hear about Barnsdale's garden centre. I
>would love to visit it some day and I'd rather hoped the gc would be
>brilliant. Perhaps it will improve following customer feedback.

I went with the intention of buying a plant (anything!) as a souvenir
and came out without anything, and saw many others do the same.
Barnsdale, was well worth the visit, a very full day, was one of the
first in, and left as they were closing for the day.

[News]

On 02/09/2013 15:33, Martin wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 14:15:12 +0100, Jake <Nos...@invalid.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>
> +1
>

Very -1

Trouble is, usenet is much more suited to knockers than praisers. It is
notorious for it:) IYSWIM

[News]

On 03/09/2013 13:06, Jake wrote:

> On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 11:38:51 +0100, News <new...@benevolent.org.uk>
> wrote:
>

>>
>> Very -1
>>
>> Trouble is, usenet is much more suited to knockers than praisers. It is
>> notorious for it:) IYSWIM
>

> As you totally disagree with me, I take it that you are, in fact,
> knocking every GW presenter in history except Monty, whom you are
> praising. And you will also be happy to see the decline of bees
> because newer gardeners shoot chemicals over everything when the bees
> are flying? Indeed, even older gardeners: I've heard "Oh, I never read
> instructions. If it's on sale it's ok, innit!"
>

Quite where you leap to those ridiculous conclusions from, I really
don't know. I disagree with your views of Monty. Full stop. That
doesn't necessarily mean that I subscribe to everything he says, so
don't try and draw any conclusions about the way I feel beyond that.

Whilst the original remark was somewhat tongue in cheek and a repository
for a pun, I believe that in general, people are more likely to express
feelings of dislike on usenet than of like. In the same way that people
in general will more often criticise a company when it cocks up than
they will praise it when it does something right. YMMV.

--
regards
andy

[Mike]

"News" wrote in message news:C2mVt.101331$_22....@fx30.fr7...

[Spider]

Thanks for adding that. It makes a visit sound very promising indeed.
I'll just not have to plan any purchases.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay