In praise of Alys Fowler.

I'll get it for you for Christmas then :luv:

 

You're such a sweetheart .... I've got a lot to learn ..... :luv:

 

Have to say I am a fan of Carol and would have much preferred her to Toby any day. Toby seems to be a bit patronising and not very interesting. Didn't watch last week as I miss Carol's enthusiastic approach. Alys is nice though and she does appear to do a lot of the heavy work with Toby watching her struggle!

 

Carol IS a true gardener as was monty.... Toby, Joe and Alys are meerly presenters

 

Alys trained at Kew Gardens before becoming a reseacher for Gardeners World...........Now head Gardener.
The only advantage Carol has is age.
Must go now she will be on in a minute .

 

Pro said

Toby Buckland trained and worked as a rose and pinks nurseryman and gardener before qualifying in landscape management at Greenwich University.
His has built a garden for poet laureate Andrew Motion, gardened for novelist Tom Sharpe and written several books including How To Make Your Garden Grow.

Joe Swift is an expert on gardening and garden design.
"I garden all day, designing, doing TV, or writing, then I get home and do more gardening. On the weekends, I try to persuade my wife and kids to help outdoors. They love gardening, but not quite as much as me!"
Joe used to garden with his grandparents and his mother. It was only when he left school and started working for a gardener that he decided to make it his career.

Alys Fowler trained at Kew Gardens and worked as a researcher on the Gardeners' World team before becoming head gardener at Berryfields, under Monty Don's direction.
I hardly think this qualifies them as "meerly presenters" even Monty fully endorsed Toby as a excellent choice I think he does a good job.

 

Walnut,

"Joe Swift is an expert on gardening and garden design."

Debatable, the guys desighns are very mediocre and his knowledge lacking... anyone can claim to be an expert, with decent promotion and tv coveradge folk will even start to be hoodwinked into beliveing it.

As for Alys, Kew is a long shot from reality..... The way they go about certain things at kew takes a lot to be desired, the year at kew programs are a source of amusment for me.

As for toby,

Who he works for is irelavant, I work for many intresting folk, some of them being 'known' the gardens are no more special than many of the unnkown folk I work for.

What makes the larger gardens I work in special are vast amounts of space and a proliferation of money for planting and maintance.

As for writing a book, with time and an agent many of us could easily do likewise and probably better.

 

Pro it is sad that you find it neccesary to critisize these fine presenter /gardeners,of course you entitled to your opinion,but they ALL give me and many others much pleasure every time we se them,you see in their own right they ALL have something special to offer us viewers.
Of course they have to be able to overcome the glare of the camera,you may know your stuff,but would you come over well in front of millions of viewers...........I doubt it.

 

:cl-p: Well said Roders

 

Roders, The reason I criticize is because of the bad advice they give out.

Example one, a short clip on pruning hedges, tobys tip was to use newspaper under the hedge to collect the clippings..... Utter baloney the slightest breath of wind annd the sheets would blow away. A dust sheet or tarp yes, newspaper no.

Example two, The old chestnut about using secateurs to prune large leaved hedges like laurel to avoid tearing leaves.

Any Proper former or current profesional gardener or simply keen ameture would know this is THE most stupid and impractical sudgestion ever. A sharp hedgetrimmer does not tear the laeves, It would be a totally impossible task to trim all but the smallest laurel hedge with secatures.

Folk are often put off growing laurel hedges by this very myth.

Example three was from a section about hydrangas and pruning, the advice was not to prune mop leaved other than removing dead flower heads and cutting shoots back by a few buds. WRONG, WRONG WRONG!!!

Do this and you will have a bush filled with old woody stems, the program negated to say that a proportion of woody growth should be removed to encouradge new basal shoots.

 

Truest words you ever spoke Paul:cl-p:

 

And in the examples I give it proves they are not.

 

Well I like it

 

I feel the need to take issue with Pauls comments. ALL of the gardener's world presenters can give out advice which we don't agree with from time to time, including Monty and Carol. But isn't that what gardening is all about? There doesn't always have to be a right and a wrong way, just differences of opinion. Paul's critisizing and dogmatic attitude drives me mad. However if picking holes in other gardener's ideas is ok on this forum then I would have to say that Paul himself is quite wrong...from personal experience I can tell him that many large public gardens have their laurel hedges pruned by secateurs. I should know, I've spent enough weeks of my life doing it. Yes a hedgecutter is ok if you are not concerned about the quality of the finish but you only have to walk around any suburban area for a while to see laurels with brown edged leaves caused by trimming with hedgecutters and this is not good enough for many prestigious gardens.

If we are really going to start throwing muck around about which presenter is a proper gardener, consider this. Toby and Alys had both worked for years as professional gardeners and spent time studying and training to gain their skills. This is in stark contrast to Monty who has never made the effort to train and the only professional horticultural jobs he has ever had have been presenting TV programmes! Saying that, if you enjoy watching his programmes, then fine.

Consider this, after a filming day all the presenters are chauffered back to their homes in luxury cars around the country whereas Alys is to be found day-in day-out at the garden, doing what? oh yes - gardening. Oh, and she cycles to and from the garden too.

Personally I think I detect a bit of sour grapes in Paul's comments, is it that he is annoyed that younger people than him seem to have made more of their horticultural careers?

 

Indeed...Anyone can claim to be an expert. :skp:

IMHI ...G-World is excellent!