Gardener's World - is it any better?

[Chris]

Just finished watching the first GW programme of the year. The production team promised to act on the criticisms of the 2009 fiasco. I felt that that they have improved the programme significantly by trying to communicate to gardeners rather than producing a nice bit of Friday evening visual entertainment for a wider range of people who will not be out there in the garden tomorrow. My partner - a life long gardener like myself said that it was "slightly better". At least I will watch again next week.

What do you all think?

[Arnie]

Did not watch any GW programmes last year as it was so poor and as a result of that gave it a miss tonight, So I can not comment on it but would be interested to see how many people of forum watched it and what they thought of it


Regards

Kevin

[oldherbaceous]

The last ten minutes seemed quite good, i can't comment on the first twenty, as i nodded off.

[alan refail]

Wastn't able to see it.

This being Wales all we had was an hour and a half of grown men chasing each other and a small mis-shapen ball round a field

Thank goodness for i-player. I'll give it a try later.

[pongeroon]

I thought it was better, maybe a return to form. I had a bit of a grumble at one or two things, but didn't have to resort to shouting or switching off.

[Johnboy]

Hi Pongeroon,
That's a first then!
JB.

[glallotments]

I thought it was a bit better too but I suppose at this time of year the content may be a bit limited.

[Tigger]

I sky boxed it and watched it when we got home after Tanner's wine tasting club and I thought it was better too. Mind you, that was after 10 different Brown Brother's delights!

[Cider Boys]

A fair shout everyone, I also thought it was an improvement but there again anything was an improvement on the pathetic diatribe the presenters gave us last year.

Proves that it was not the presenters at fault (a fairly knowledgable lot in my view) but the idiots in charge, as always!

Barney

[Primrose]

i thought it was marginally better than last year's pathetic efforts, with more concentration on the basics, and less of the "poncy" stuff and the silly chatter which was so offputting in the last series. However, it's early days and I think it's too early to judge whether the producers have really taken to heart the criticisms which were made by serous gardeners. I suppose one advantage of having a 30 minute slot, rather than an hour to fill, is that it will concentrate their minds to focus on some of the gardening essentials rather than filling time, which is one of the criticisms I had of the last series.

[Kleftiwallah]

Percy 'Chucker' will be rolling in his grave......Cheers, Tony.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I'd forgotten to watch last week, but thought last night's programme was much better than last year's rubbish, at least it was about gardening and not beat the clock etc. Toby Buckland's tip about using wire wool to clean the plant labels was very useful - I think I'll get my label bucket out and try it right now.

[Geoff]

Definitely a lot better. Instead of ranting at it I was just agreeing and saying I knew that; apart possibly from the splitting of Lemon Queen, I would have gone for smaller bits. I usually wash labels and use cream cleaner, might try the dry method. Sad thing is I have Geoff Hamilton cloches and every greenhouse I have built has had a Percy Thrower hook (in my case for anorak rather than suit jacket) but I can't see myself naming anything after the current crop.

[Binky]

I thought last night's was alright. It was thorough (unlike last year's rubbish) and explained and showed things carefully, which is what novice gardeners want. So if. for example, you didn't know much about roses, it gave you the confidence to have a go.

[Chris]

Hi

I thought that the second programme was alright as well - great relief from last year - the trivia just left me so frustrated.

My method for cleaning plant labels is to put them in the dishwasher - that does most of the work - and then soak overnight in a fairly concentrated solution of bleach. Next day most just need a wipe and no wire wool is required.

It's a difficult job to cater both for newer gardeners (and there seem to be a lot of them) and those of us who almost remember (not quite in my case) the Percy Thrower hooks - all in a studio as I recall. So my preference would be for 2 programmes each with a different emphasis.