Kitchen Garden Forum

Re,Monty Don, Cuba and their "organic" gardening.

The reason that the gardeners in Cuba are using so called "organic methods" to grow their vegetables is there is no artificial fertilizers available!
Watch what happens when "HIS NIBS" finally kicks the bucket and the Cubans are able to live like others in that part of the world,and have access to ouside products like fertilizer!

That use of the word "organic" should be "VERBIETEN" to any or all of the presenters on any or all BBC gardening programme.

They all use it willy nilly,trying to apear smart,when they just sound like prats!

Hello Lurganspade

I'm not sure that I fully understand your point but I'm inclined to agree with you anyway.

All I ever hear on any BBC garden programme is 'organic' this and 'organic' that like there is no other option to grow anything.

Best wishes

Barney

Cider Boys wrote:Hello Lurganspade

I'm not sure that I fully understand your point but I'm inclined to agree with you anyway.

All I ever hear on any BBC garden programme is 'organic' this and 'organic' that like there is no other option to grow anything.

Best wishes
Barney

Hi,
What I mean is that the people in Cuba are growing their vegetables "organically" is because they are unable to get artificial fertilizers, not because they do not wish to use them.

It is all right for middle class "gardeners" in the western world (who do not wish to feed their families chemicals,their words not mine)to pretend that they grow organically to save the planet, they do not have to worry if their crops are eaten by pests or do not grow,they can nip down to the local supermarket and buy their vegatables there!

I actually get more stable manure than I can use delivered free,so use almost no artificial fertilizers,except in pot plants!
And the only vegetables I spray are Cauliflowers,nothing worse to find a caterpiler in the florets once cooked!

Best wishes

Yes, you certainly sound like one of the ever increasing number of 'pragmatic' gardeners on this forum.

Welcome to the club.

Barney

Cider Boys wrote:Yes, you certainly sound like one of the ever increasing number of 'pragmatic' gardeners on this forum.

Welcome to the club.

Barney

Thanks!

I would or will watch any programme on the TV about gardening,never to old to learn or get fresh insperation about the pastime I love!

But not everyone agrees with my view about some of the presenters,I have just lifted the quote below from the BBC website.

Looking forward to the book as well.
I find Monty just as good a writer as he is a gardener. And hold him in very high esteem as a gardener!

Ps I could never be a presenter,even though I have criticised the ones who continually sprout "I'm organic you know!"

Bye for now.

I've been thinking about my previous comment on Monty Don and realise it isn't the man I don't like, but the artifice involved in making the programmes in general. He is a good presenter and is reading a script provided by researchers. He is demonstrating what they want to show in a little snap shot for the programme on ground that has been prepared by a team of gardeners we rarely if ever see. So if they tell him to look more animated and dig in a silly way, who can blame him. If I were paid his wages I could very well garden in whatever odd way the director asked.

So with this in mind I am going to start watching gardening programmes again, enjoy the information and laugh when the presenter says or does something daft, and just cringe when they say he is a gardening expert.

Cubans had to grow their own food without using fertilizers and a lot of other things after the Cuba crisis when they were blockaded by the Americans. They have managed surprisingly well and I think that schools, hospitals and other institutions all had to grow their own food.

It is amazing what people can do out of necessity.

I actually like Monty Don's enthusiasm. Do any of you remember a programme he fronted on Channel 4 many years ago dedicated entirely to growing vegetables. I don't know what credentials Monty has as a gardener, but if he got just one person growing veg, then good on him. Also, although I don't watch GW, whenever I do catch it, they seem to be discussing vegetables more often than they ever did ever ATit. Again, well done!
As for Monty's stance on Polytunnels, probably a bit misplaced. If we don't grow produce under plastic in the UK, we will be replacing the polytunnels with warehouses in which to store produce freighted in from abroad!

As I have written before, I prefer the old boys such as Billett, Thrower, and Seabrook etc.
However, I have always held the view that you can learn something new from anyone and Monty Don certainly knows more than me regarding most aspects of gardening.

I do believe programmes would be better served by having specialist experts in subjects rather than employing media pleasing personality presenters. The BBC is in my view more concerned with social engineering and political correctness at the expense of the true facts taking paramount importance.

PS
Since my other recent postings have included some appreciated pictures I see no reason why I shouldn’t cheer you all up with some more.



Best wishes
Barney

I think the biggest problem with trying to find the ideal gardening presenter, is that there are huge amounts of highly knowledgeable garden experts but put them in front of a camera and it just doesn't work.
And what makes it worse, is getting ridiculed for the way they look, dress or even talk.

You can't please all of the people all of the time.

I have even heard Allan T is a right tyrant when it comes to his gardener cutting his lawn.

I think i prefered the pony photos Barney.

Here is one I do like - Sarah Raven, she knows about plants, is a great cook, wears proper gardening clothes - an old coat and boots, and her hair is usually messy. They do try to smarten her up occasionally by getting her to wear a flowery skirt and cardigan, but she usually goes back to her old stuff.

My problem is that eventually all my clothes end up as gardening clothes and when I do want to get dressed up my best things either don't fit or are out of date.

I can't possibly go, i've got nothing to wear.

My Governor collects gardening clothes...she has wardrobes full of them some I have never seen her wear

I think garden presenters are like Dr Who for the British, you love the ones that were on the telly when you were really getting into the subject.

I like Monty Don and I'm not really worried about his 'credentials'. I like that he's an enthusiastic gardener with an interest in veg (that seems to be squashed by Gardeners World). I like his writing as well.

I liked Alan Titmarsh as well, but now he seems to have morphed into a parody of himself. I take each presenter as they come and realise that a lot of the decisions of how a TV show is made is up to the programmers/directors not the presenters, so I take what I can from GW and other programmes and don't get too fussed about the things that don't fit into my own style and interests.

i like watching monty present-but agree his knowledge of gardening is poss similar to my own!
cuba is lovely; but the food wasn't up to much when i went