Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All,

Am I the only one who has given up watching Gardeners World.

Not enough Veg content despite the face that vegetable seeds out sell flowers.

Monty Don filling his garden with 8 of this or 10 of that paid for by the BBC.

Poor Carol showing us yet again how to take a hard wood/soft wood cuttings.

Not enough content with REAL people with REAL allotments, gardens and bugets .

I think the program needs a big revamp, end of rant.

Tracie

I gave up on GW many years ago, for all the reasons you mention. But mainly because Monty brings me out in hives. He had retired the last time I looked, but he seems to have "done a Parky".

I totally agree. I love Monty, and Carol but the shows are just getting a bit boring now. And not very useful to me, I've only just got my allotment last September and I really need good tips about growing stuff.

Never miss it - good job TVs aren't two way!
We usually settle down with a nice bottle of wine on a Friday night and insult most of the items. From disagreeing with how he does things, when he does things and why he does things to how practical is that buying three £20 specimens. We do like Carol and she has inspired me to grow all sorts from cuttings (and Allsorts if anybody remembers my April 1st a few years back). Jo and Rachel usually get even more abuse. It could be worse, they could use Christine Walkden! Well there's not usually much on on a Friday night.
We've insulted GW many times on here, I usually blame the production team not the presenters. Wonder how the garden we bought in Birmingham is doing?

Beech-grove garden on BBC is good. Have googled it. It is on again tomorrow [Thurs] 1930 but Scotland only. The might repeat on the weekend for the rest of us.

PS. Having Freesat dish. Am able to get BBC Scottish, have set recorder for tomorrow night.

I have also given up on watching GW a long while ago, but I watched the last GW episode, or part of it, solely because of the effect it had on the National Botanic Garden of Wales, which it featured. Or rather the immediate effect on their web site, which I look after. Server obviously struggled on the Friday night as the numbers went up about threefold and they are still above normal. They actually did a very good job for us, despite what we may think about Monty and Joe - I can't repeat some of the things that were said. It was a last minute decision to visit us as they couldn't find any sign of Spring anywhere else apart from the Great Glasshouse!

I must admit that I still watch it if there isn't anything else on. I did notice a couple of weeks ago that they had given Monty a new choppy hair cut and dyed it dark brown - perhaps that is bringing it up to date. They did the same with Sarah Raven when they made her wear cotton skirts and cardigans instead of her wonderful tatty gardening clothes.

I was also wondering what had happened to the other garden they spent so much on setting up. It makes me seethe to think how much of our money is going to fund Monty Don and his garden he certainly fell on his feet when he pulled that one off. Perhaps you could call it a "stroke of luck".

It is a pity it has got so boring.

I love the National Botanic Garden for Wales and am sorry I live so far away from it as I would love to visit more often. I'm glad the programme has given it some good publicity as it is a real gem.

Isn't it a pity that they can't get gardeners who can present instead of presenters who haven't a clue or are so irritating that you can't bear to listen to them.

Perhaps they should get rid of Monty Don altogether and just visit gardens around the country - large and small and get tips and ideas from real gardeners - rather like the K.G mag article featuring head gardeners.

Gardeners World and Top Gear - both desperately need a revamp and some fresh, less opinionated presenters who report on things pertinent to the majority of the viewing public and not a select few.

Okee dokes, must dash - I've got to pop down to the local garden centre to pick up a very expensive shrub or two in my ducassi veyron or maybe I'll take the ferrari

VPM
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vegpatchmum wrote:Gardeners World and Top Gear - both desperately need a revamp and some fresh, less opinionated presenters

No, no, no. They tried to re-vamp GW with a fresh. less opinionated (and better qualified) presenter - KG's own Toby Buckland - and it was disasterous. The presenters were not opinionated enough to tell the producers to stop asking them to do silly things !

And Top Gear is the BBC's most widely sold program precisely because of the idiotic antics of its opinionated presenters. A re-vamp will most likely kill it.

Tony Hague wrote:
And Top Gear is the BBC's most widely sold program precisely because of the idiotic antics of its opinionated presenters. A re-vamp will most likely kill it.

And this is a bad thing because .........

To be fair I do like Carol (GW not TG ) and I like Captain Slow (TG not GW ), it's the rest of them I have a problem with.

I vote Terry Wogan as presenter for both programmes!!!

VPM
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PLUMPUDDING wrote:Isn't it a pity that they can't get gardeners who can present instead of presenters who haven't a clue or are so irritating that you can't bear to listen to them.

A presenter can be trained up in a day, but to learn to garden takes quite a bit longer. You do not need to dig very deep to find out that Monty doesn't know nothing about anything. Which isn't to say he's a bad presenter, necessarily, it's just that the uxorious posho is the last person I want to give any time to. But that's only my opinion.

To get on the box, you just need to be well connected:

I think they are missing a big opportunity.

On this forum there is a huge amount of gardening know how. We could all take turns and do a 10 minute slot about our real gardening experiences, tips, and mony saving ideas. We do not have the cash of the BBC, we cannot afford to plant 5 of this and 10 of that, but most of us know how to make a little go a long way.

As commented, Top Gear is the most widely watched programme of its type in the world, dubbed in many languages and with many versions. Yes - it can be irritating and I don't often watch it, but I thought the redesign of a car for old people brilliant comedy.

As for GW, yes, if it had more veg I would watch it. And knowledgeable gardeners will help. Afraid that I can't stand Carol Kleins voice and mannerisms.

we both find Carol a bit overly jolly in our house, is everything funny? anyway, I watch it occasionally, I don't mind Monty at all, I like his laid back style. don't forget, the programme is probably/possibly aimed at novices, of which there is a fresh batch each year. I use it as a little reminder of where I should be with planting and pruning. Geoff Hamilton was my favourite presenter!

Re Beech Grove garden on BBC.
Go to BBC.co.uk/Beechgrove Garden. Well worth a watch. Tell me if you agree.