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Gardener's World and the average gardener

Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,025

Sorry, advance warning, bit of a rant coming up, but I don't often rant.

Last night on GW on TV Monty said that one indispensable piece of kit he has is his warm bed with heated cables in it. He said it cost £700 years ago and has saved him 10s of thousands of £s. Then he said if you can't afford that he had something cheaper, a big heated pad to put under seed trays. That cost £100. I don't see the average gardener affording that sort of thing, you need a huge GH to put it all in for a start. I think GW should be more for the average gardener.

Or are we all interested to see that anyway? How I miss Geoff Hamilton and all the things he showed us how to make cheaply.

Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,139
    It's a bit like watching Masterchef and complaining that I don't have a Sous Vide machine and a top of the range ice cream maker so the programme is not for me. Delia Smith has top of the range kitchens, cookware made to her own design and a team of trained chefs/cooks/researchers/writers working on her recipes.



    Monty has things on the scale he does because gardening is his job and presumably it's worthwhile financially.



    It's pretty obvious from looking at any gardening magazine or the shelves of the garden centre that smaller/cheaper versions are available.



    Monty was honest, showing us what he uses and explaining how it helps. Those of us with the knowledge and skills can work out how to make our own - I've a feeling that current Health & Safety would do more than raise an eyebrow at a tv programme that suggested that the ordinary gardener should attempt to do that. Things were different in Geoff Hamilton's day.

    image

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,139
    Thinking about it further - if Monty had shown us the smaller/cheaper types that are available that would presumably have fallen foul of the BBC's No Advertising rules. All he could do was show us what he uses - no names, no advertsing.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,025

    Then he could have shown us cheaper methods without mentioning names.

    I've made a warm propagator using my old dog's (who died) plastic basket filled with sand with a heating cable in it - bought cheaply on the internet.

    You can't compare Masterchef, that is a competiton, GW isn't. The equivalent would be one of the gardening shows, like Malvern or Tatton Park. Chelsea being like one of the professional chef competitions.

    Delia Smith, certainly in her early shows, cooked in her own kitchen using fairly normal equipment.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,139
    I'll concede that the Masterchef comparison may not be appropriate. However I think that the Delia one may be more apt.



    Delia lives close to my old home and when I lived in that part of Suffolk we had mutual acquaintances - the purposoe-built kitchen in her tv series may have been on her property but it wasn't her family kitchen, and the induction hob she used was certainly not normal back then. She also had a large back-room staff of recipe developers etc, as part of the Sainsbury magazine published by the company owned by her husband and herself and edited by her husband.



    Anyway, as Monty didn't say, heated propagators are available from most garden centres for ??24.99 - I checked when I visited this morning. I didn't spot any heat pads but they appear to be available on Ebay from ??10 upwards.



    What Monty did explain was the benefit of using heat when propagating - the majority of viewers have access to magazines and the internet, or can ask at their GC - in 30 minutes he can't say everything. Perhaps if he had more time ................ image

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Busy Bee2Busy Bee2 Posts: 1,005
    On the bright side, I don't think we need any more heat right now! Phew - it's a scorcher in the greenhouse. I don't like leaving the door wide open because otherwise I have to chase the partridges (Alan and Alan) out before they start pecking, or still worse, the wood pigeons. Little girl bought some purple net sheer curtains from Ikea for ??3, and only used one in her pink boudoir, so I have taken the other one out there to use as shading, but now I have to think about how to hang it up!
  • Busy Bee2Busy Bee2 Posts: 1,005
    ??3.00 even... Wish I'd bought more and put them in a 'these will come in handy one day' box.
  • Busy Bee2Busy Bee2 Posts: 1,005
    Why won't it write the pound sign?
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    How do you know which Alan is Alan BB?



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Busy Bee2Busy Bee2 Posts: 1,005
    Indeed nut, I know Alan because he looks like a partridge, whereas Alan closely resembles a partridge.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    I understand BB. It's obvious when you think about itimage



    In the sticks near Peterborough
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