Gardeners World

Well well well, hasn't Mr Don got some lovely balls (buxus sempervirens of course)... and why did he not hope that I enjoy my garden, whatever the weather??? selfish man.

 

Agreed. An hour would be much better, and not feel so rushed.

I also agree with the mixed feelings. Where I liked the little practical advice on veg sowing/planting, I wasnt really impressed with the 'help out a gardener' part, where joe and racheal were giving the lady a hand in her garden.

I didnt know that Carol's part was a repeat from a previous series, however, now I know, it's a little bit cheap of the BBC, especially considering that they are meant to have made 'imrovements'.

Will see what happens next week.

 

Haven't watched it yet, but sounds just like the old format (rather than the last series), which I had stopped watching ...

 

I really didn't see what was so bad about the last series. I quite enjoyed it to be honest. When it was first revamped it was horrible I will agree but I felt it eventually found its way.

I loved Toby (but not alys) and don't think they should have been given the boot because of the programs failings. I liked the way Toby didn't bombard the viewer with latin names and explained things simply. I feel (and this is my opinion) with the return of Monty Dom and Rachel De Thame gardeners world will return to the snobby elitism the show use to be, cutting off viewers like myself onto a island of bewilderment.

I haven't watched the show yet but will do tomorrow morning.

 

I watched tonights episode. Good to see Monty back on his feet. When I watched the show before I liked his part of the show and the way he did things. Interesting to see his bit about sowing beetroot seed and how he starts shallots. The part about splitting Snowdrops was usefull. My opinion is that there was not enough time given to him to tell us about his garden and how he does things. He started that garden from scratch and I for one would like to know more about the history of it.

The part of the show about helping a gardener was in my opinion wasted. Nothing about really basic stuff. A lot of the show was based on viewers knowing a lot to start with. I will watch the next episode and see if things improve.

Chopper.

 

WeLL SAID
Plus messing about in the pond with all the frogs spawn (not good)

Much prefer the Scotish Beechgrove thats been going in the same garden for 25 years should be back on soon just as well I have sky so I can get BBC1 Scotland

Spruce

 

Oh well, my worst fears realised :( No unusual / useful tips.

Chopper: I'm not so sure about a module-tray of beetroot. I think a module for 2 or 3 plants is too small (but Monty knows better than me), and I certainly wouldn't want to plant a whole module (50 cells??) with 2 or 3 seeds each - unless you have time to pickle them!

I grow mine with 3 or 4 plants in 3" pots - I plant out and then when big enough I pull all bar one as thinnings, and let the larger one grow on. I start off about 10 - 20 a month, which is about what we get through.

I reckon that the 3" pots suffer less transplant shock than modules will do - just pushing the things out of the modules severely disrupts the plant, and in my book Beetroot are in the "roots" category in terms of aversion to transplant-shock

And Monty wrote BoltHardy on the label, and pronounced it like that. Mind you, I thought that was its correct name until a year or so back ...

 

I may be wrong, but I think Monty and his family live off of his home grown produce. If this is the case, then 50 cells+ would be a good idea, however, I agree it would be too much for the vast majority of viewers, and this was very poorly portrayed.

 

We live off our produce too ... couldn't use that many though (unlss we preserved them). Not sure how long they are harvestable from first to last - perhaps 3 weeks, maybe 4 weeks? 50 x 3 per cell = 150 beetroot to be eaten, or preserved, in a month ... that's where my thinking was anyway

I just think people will, not unreasonably, blindly-follow and it needs some additional explanation of the quantities that would be sensible.

Perhaps I won;t grow any at all this year - I predict a Beetroot glut and will be able to help my neighbours out by eating theirs for them :D

 

Ah, yes, that would be quite a few to get through! Maybe he makes his own borscht :WINK1:

 

Indeed ARMANDII, but to do that requires knowledge of how long the crop will "stand". Cauli's are all over and done in a fortnight, so I don't sow more than we can eat in two weeks.

Sprouts, Parsnips, Leeks etc "stand" all Winter, so a different formulae applies

I reckon the presentation style of the last series would have mentioned things like this ... but this series is more of an entertainment show (as it was previously with Monty IMHO). Nothing wrong with that, but its not really of great interest to me in that format.