Alan v Monty

Hi Kyleleonard

I hope you didn't think I was questioning the condition. Not at all. It's more about personal style. In my street (which, as longstanding forum members will know,is not exactly Acacia Avenue) you'd have two choices in Don's position: pop the pills and try to carry on, or throw yourself on state, which is not exactly happy to have new mouths to feed right now. Don is very lucky to have a nice media job which will tick over until he feels better but he never gives me much sense that he realises how privileged he is.

I admit I'm rather old-fashioned. Many people like celebs who let it all hang out in public. Personally I wish they'd just slink off quietly into the bushes to shake off the old Black Dog.

 

Yeah, I didn't think you were questioning it!

I agree, he shouldn't have spoken about it publicly, and would have been best off just taking gardening leave (pardon the pun) and not gone into detail of why he was off! Considering the size of his garden, he's surely worth over £1m and probably wouldn't last if he was put in our shoes, so he should have taken how stupid him telling everyone really sounded.

And there's apparently a lot of treatment involving florescent lighting to treat it, but I presume you have to pay for it..

 

I think there's room for both shows. I enjoyed the different styles and I also love looking at other peoples gardens.

I've been watching the repeats of Gardeners World on Blighty. Most are from the time when Monty was at Berryfields, for me that format worked much better because there was more interaction between himself, Carol, Chris and Rachel.

 

Missed half of Gardeners' World tonight because I didn't know it started at 8:00pm, so found the latter part of it boring (at GW Live), & I saw all of Alan's, which I thought was better than the series opener.

 

I watched all of Monty's show tonight. Enjoyed it so much that I forgot flick over to see what Alan was up to.

Having helped at a garden in the past at GWL, I was interested to see the show gardens this year. The standard seemed very high and although I'm not a fan of pink obelisks (!) my other half liked them. Now how am I going to persuade her it's not a good idea in our new garden?

Chris

 

Monty has had a stroke in the last few years, hasn't he?

 

Yeah, in 2007, I think it was..

 

When did he say he was suffering from SAD?

 

I loved the conceptual garden with the grass pillars at Gardeners World Live but can't see it being very practicle - how do you mow a column?

It was a refreshing change to see Monty in smart casuals at the show.

I thought the whole programme (GW) was a success tonight - I was glad to see Monty hadn't planted his dahlias yet (I was feeling guilty that mine were still in pots!). He remarked that his garden was work in progress - same as mine Monty - love yer.

 

I actually quite enjoyed last night's GWL - no fawning over celebs who happened to turn up merely to be seen and grin at a camera and I thought some of the show gardens much more 'do-able' (if there is such a word) than the 'Homes and Gardens, Country Life' things seen at Chelsea. I'm not sure a sunken seating area, although attractive in theory, is terribly practical - those with sandy stuff (like mine) would find the sides dropping in as they dug, whilst those with clay would struggle to get down more than a few inches and .... I can see the whole thing being in danger of having 2" of water permanently in the bottom - if I want a pond, I'll dig one!

By contrast, the Alan Titchmarsh programme was (is) 'odd'. The 'how to get the look' bit, really doesn't tell novice gardeners anything but merely says 'put plants in'. I thought it slightly miraculous they were able to drive a fence post in with no trouble, despite it appearing to be right next to a tree with its attendant roots () and the 2 panels of fencing, I thought, looked hideous - either do the whole length of the boundary or none at all surely?

I just have one last issue with this - and indeed many other gardening programmes - when will they stop saying '.. an average sized plot .. ' or '.. such a small space...' what is 'average' or 'small'? Dimensions people ..... we want dimensions; I quite fancied the stipa gigantica Monty Don bought - until I looked it up and found it grows up to 8' tall!

Just as a BTW - did anyone else watch the 'Apples: British to the Core' programme on BBC4 on Wednesday? (it's still on iPlayer if you're interested). Not exactly a gardening programme, but interesting for all that and helps to explain why all those wonderful English apples we used to buy/grow/scrump are no longer around.

 

You are so right about that willow fencing ..... do it all or none at all - my thoughts exactly.

The mosaics needed a 'less is more' lesson and you are SO right about the ease with which that fence post went in ..... i'd be excavating for days around those tree roots - there would be small stones (and larger ones) and allsorts of obstacles making it difficult !!!!

And the recipe sections i fast-forward through and the wildlife sections are bit weak, in my opinion.

 

I quite fancied the stipa gigantica Monty Don bought - until I looked it up and found it grows up to 8' tall!

But it's a wonderful plant Fidgetsmum. although head and shoulders above everything else, it's light and airy and moves wonderfully in the lightest breeze. Get some!

Chris

 

I like tall, upright 'airy' plants, this and Verbena bonariensis being gorgeous examples, they can be placed in smaller gardens successfully because of their 'see-through' nature

 

Watched some of those programmes last evening
I have to0 say I preferred Monty and co

 

I agree, it is a wonderful plant, but no matter how wonderful - I just 'aint got the room! My grasses reach a far more modest 4' (5' at a pinch!)