Kitchen Garden Forum

Might be worth a look as long although I would hazard a guess my garden contains a far higher proportion of edible plants than Alys Fowler has in her garden. However, it's always interesting to see what the so-called "professionals" do in their own back yard.

I'm looking forward to it AND to the return of Beechgrove Garden tonight

Ok, if this was Tuesday I managed to miss it.

Can anyone tell us what it was like and is it worth staying to watch in future?

Both Edible Garden and Beechgrove Gardens are on this evening (Wed) Colin - both are 2000hrs, EG is on BBC2 and BG is on BBC2 Scotland

Suzie wrote:Both Edible Garden and Beechgrove Gardens are on this evening (Wed) Colin - both are 2000hrs

That's great Suzie, I must make a point of.......

....doh! Should have read this earlier

Well...I was looking forward to this programme....but I can't say I was very impressed really. It wasn't at all what I expected. Not much gardening, just lots of shots of Alys picking pea shoots then dreamily munching on mange tout and whatever else it was she harvested. The whole thing put me in mind of the old Cadbury's flake adverts....but with mange tout instead of chocolate
Maybe the next one will be better?
Cheers.

Wasn't it rubbish! I kept expecting the Famous Five to jump out of the bushes

There just wasn't enough information to get new people interested - if that was, indeed, their aim. There was virtually no gardening at all to be seem apart from some broadies getting shoved into modules and peas for pea shoots.

Beechgrove was tons better, where they showed a lot of the damage the harsh winter has brought onto their garden and brought us up to date with the heater experiement.

Sincere apologies for giving the wrong time of this show

Photography 10/10

Inspiration 7/10

Information 2/10

I was particularly impressed with her two hens who laid 3 eggs, one a double-yolked one

Was pleased, though, to see she is following my line on pea shoots

Yes, I was a little disappointed too. I was hoping it would be a real inspirational and encouraging programme for those who had never tried growing vegetables in their small gardens before. However, I found it all a little confusing because it never really concentrated long enough on any single aspect of what she was doing. The presenters seem to forget that vegetable growing "newbies" need a little longer to understand the principles and these are often the very items which get glossed over. Moving quickly from one topic to another in such a crowded garden didn't lead to clarity, I thought.

The myth also seems to be perpetuated that you can feed your family from just a few plants. I suspect those broad beans provided one meagre helping. Still, I enjoyed seeing the chickens and will wait to see what next week brings.

Haven't seen it yet as it is recorded but seems I haven't missed much!

Nice Jack Russell though.

I'm glad it wasn't just me being cynical then.

I love "messy" flower gardens, (no orderly rows of stuff for me) but to put vegetables amongst all that lovely varied jumble of plants? Not for me I'm afraid! Well, maybe the runner beans, as they look really effective in the flower bed.
I like my vegetables separate, where I can see them and get at them easily to harvest them without having a mini safari. ( I do like some beneficial flowers amongst the vegetables on our allotment though)

The chalk boards and animation? Straight out of a Jamie Oliver programme!

Alan got it spot on, as usual. And those hens were lovely...I would really like to keep chickens but it is totally out of the question for us.

Maybe next week will be better..........

Cheers!

Elaine wrote:...I would really like to keep chickens but it is totally out of the question for us.

Me too - I don't think the SC would be too keen on the complaints

I think Elaine makes a very sensible point about growing vegetables in places where they are accessible so that it's easier to care for them. There's also a danger that where they're heavily shaded by other taller shubs and flowers they won't get sufficient light or root space to prosper. I think in very small or narrow gardens, too much shade from trees and tall shubs can be a real bugbear which is why I try to avoid them, (even though my neighbours inflict them on me!)

Having said that, I do grow tomatoes, climbing beans, cucumbers in a border mixed with bedding geraniums and other flowers to get a mixture of colour, and I also dot it little clumps of carrots, beetroot or Bright Lights chard, as the foilage is quite attractive. Our garden certainly wouldn't win any Designer prizes but the way it's set out works for me, and that I suppose is what most gardeners aim for.

Thank God for the off button. This was a total waste of time, money and energy. No info to encourage people, just Alys trying to be a low rent Nigella to be honest.