GW Presenters - Page 4

He is on a 2 year contract-the initial idea of him presenting from his own garden is fine on paper but I do agree with you it may get repetitive

Who knows there may be a change next year-there has been a little barney with the BBC over his chemicals/non chemicals stance

Just one last point I would like to make here is that I have recently taken over the duty of bookiing speakers for my local gardening club and my choices have been smash hits.  Some of the previous choices were very traditional and received poor attendance and terrible review from the members. My first choice was an 80 year old chap who brought a Bee hive and talked for a good hour all about Bee keeping. It was a sell out, we had to put out more chairs and had more visitors than ever before.  Not everyone wants to keep bees but it was very topical considering the plight of the bee. I want to know more about attracting insects to the garden and especially how to keep a consistant supply of nectar producing plants available both for kept bees and wild bees.  I think my choices are more in touch with the current thinking than my predecessor and the number of bottoms on seats so far suggest I'm right.

sotongeoff you seem to be in the know, am I reading between the lines here or do you have access to info in the public domain that I haven't seen yet? 

Sarah Raven had a 3 part programme on attracting insects into the garden earlier in the year

Love your little dog BTW.  I have a bouncy springer called Oliver 

Flowerpotty wrote (see)

sotongeoff you seem to be in the know, am I reading between the lines here or do you have access to info in the public domain that I haven't seen yet? 

It is out there-will see if I can find a link

sotongeoff wrote (see)

Sarah Raven had a 3 part programme on attracting insects into the garden earlier in the year

But did she cover the whole season, especially the very early part?

The SR programme was all about creating wild flower patches/meadows-it was filmed over a year there is probably a dvd available

Monty Don story

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150893/Monty-Don-embroiled-row-BBC-employers-refusing-follow-advice-make-viewers-aware-non-organic-products.html#ixzz20KdnzZs3

Thanks for that I will look at the link.  I do remember the wild flower programme but didnt' record that one.  Perhaps I should have or at least try to find a DVD as you suggest, particularly as our gardening club is beginning a project to plant a community orchard in order to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee and underplant with a wild flower meadow (my suggestion).  I'ts only a small affair so far so as not to scare off the parish council but it has potential in my view.  Possibly a hands on pruning lesson in the future. We had Mary Spiller give us a talk on pruning a couple of years ago and she was wonderful. Mary was I believe the first female GW presenter, fabulous lady.

This year's GW has been very boring in my opinion. I record it and often it only takes me 10mins to watch the interesting bits. MD should be put out to pastur, he never was any good and now he is becoming slow, boring and even more patronising. Get someone new for next year for goodness sake 

I enjoy Gardeners' World and I am very happy with Monty Don presenting it.  I find it quite easy to relate most of the topics covered in the programme to my small garden (approx 12m x 12m) and have picked up a lot of useful tips.  I've been watching Gardener's World since the days of Percy Thrower;  all the presenters have had their own strong points and individual passions.  One of the strengths of the present set up is that by using other people such as Carol Klein etc, there are different styles of presentation and a different 'pace' to separate parts of the programme.  I think the current programme's greatest weakness is that it has been reduced to only 30 minutes per week most weeks, so there is rarely the possibility of covering a topic in any real depth.

And at the risk of getting my head bitten off, with the greatest of respect I do feel that if you feel patronised it says more about you than it does Monty Don.

I to have enjoyed GW but and would hate for it to end but it needs to come into the 21st century.  I was very small when Percy was around but do remember him and watched Geoff Hammilton regularly.  Alan T had lots of interesting things to say and please believe me when I say it's not personal but Monty was a mistake.  He's a lovely man but he had his time at Berryfields but now the programme has stagnated.  I record it and he says and does the same things over and over. I've seen Carol (who I like) take Japanese anemone root cuttings at least twice if not three times. Monty even began the March GW when the clocks went back in the same place and with virtually the same words as last year. There is nothing new and whilst I hate to say it, Rachel De Thame and the Military wives is just a shameless jumping on the waggon of their Christmas success.  Talk about dumbing down, I don't watch the programme to see complete beginners plant a few seeds, as noble as the project may have been it should have been a completely different programme.  Gardening is like science, how long is your piece of string. The topic's are endless and yet we still hear about how to make INDUSTRIAL quantities of compost, oy vey ! I don't want to spend my summer moving shed loads of kack and I certainly don't have the space to do it in. Get real GW and give us something we can use.  GW certainly used to do that but this time around it's not delivering. Who has space for a LIME WALK or 15 foot high hedges?  Who's got a Box hedge around their veg plot and the Jewel garden is just gawdy!  If Carol bless her tells me how wonderful GERANIUMS are again the TV gets it !!!  Time for a change GW / BBC. And for god's sake ditch the sport sometime for GW just for a pleasant change.

Complaining about being shown how to make compost properly reveals a real lack of understanding of the principles involved - compost heaps have to be a minimum size in order for them to heat up properly and for decomposition to take place.  If you don't have room for compost bins then don't make compost - but not to show how to make proper compost?  How could it be a programme about gardening if you didn't understand that? 

You may not want a box hedge around your veg plot but there are lots of little terraced houses near here that have neatly clipped box hedges in their frong gardens, and there's also a little terraced house  where I've seen they are establishing a pleached beech hedge above their front garden wall to give their little plot more privacy.  If you've an imagination you will look at the techniques shown on Gardener's World and alter and adapt them to create something new for your own garden. 

It seems that some people are very literal - what they want is to be set a project, like homework, for them to complete.

Gardening is about learning about plants and techniques and using that knowledge to respond to the seasons and different climatic conditions and the environment you're living in to create something new of your own.  It's a creative art.  Monty Don et al give you the basic information and techniques - it's up  to you what you do with it.

Complaints about gaudy flower beds is funny - if you've been around as long as I have you'll remember complaints about Gardeners' World flowerbeds copying Sissinghurst and others and planting up soft monochromatic colour-schemes.  

And complaints about doing the same thing at the same time of year - words almost fail me!  If you don't like the repetitive patterns in your life that being a gardener creates, then why are you even watching the programme - scenes like this are put in specifically to create that feeling of continuity that is so much a part of gardening.

As I said, the only problem is that the programme is not long enough so it doesn't offer the opportunity to cover topics in depth.  

I find it hard to believe that you begrudge the showing of basic gardening techniques such as the planting of seeds etc, when from reading the queries on this forum there are so many people who know very little about gardening  and yet want to grow things.  If you're prepared to come on here and give a bit of time to share your knowledge and experience, why complain about the programme doing the same thing?

Anyone hear how the sweet pea 'experiment' is progressing?

well said dovefrom above.. the seasons are the smae year in year out,.. so gardening has a repetetive side to it.. sowing seeds, planting out, weeding, feeding dead heading.. pruning... it all makes a lovely garden.

i dont mind Monty and i love Carol.. thou her voice annoys me.. her enthusiam is infectious... i cant really stand rachel and tend to go make cuppa when she is on.. joe is fine i can watch him. monty's garden may be large and not all to my taste..but i learn from him everyweek.. this year he has done his pond and i have learnt about making one.. not that i have room.. but it has been enjoying to see transform from hole to lovely pond and planting.. it shows how you can do it your self..

and i am all for non chemical and i always thought the BBC werent allowed to advertise products on their programmes.. maybe i am wrong..

we have watched monty's garden grow like our own.. i have wtached it since the days of percy thrower.. geoff hamilton etc.. i will always watch it regardless..

it is not long enough programme and is only one we are given.. if they had more time more could be covered as dovefromabove said..

as i tell everyone.. if you dont like a programme there are plenty of other channels to watch or just switch off and go in the garden

Bring back Alan.

Dove from above, you missunderstand my complaint. Yes I do understand the principles of composting thank you but they tell us how to do it year on year.  I think it's a waste of programme time when they repeat things so often.  Do you have the space for at least two big compost bins?  I don't, However I would like to use what I can to make compost on a smaller scale (and I do believe I'm not alone in that) but that is never covered dispite it being perfectly possibly, in principle AND in practice... get YOUR facts straight.

As for "new techniques"  I'm actually complaining that they don't show us new techniques, just repeat the old ones, it's tiresome when there is only half an hour. Your way off with "homework" that's just a patronising comment, and you don't know me and what I have achieved.

I wouldn't watch GW if I didn't think it was a good programme but you have just said it yourself, the programme is too short to waste time.  I don't begrudge anything except endless repetition.  I don't like Monty's garden because it just doesn't give any new ideas, it's such a boring garden to look at when ever you see a long shot.

Monty as a presenter is OK and I do like Carol and her infectious style but please ring the changes, that's all I'm asking for.  There used to be more variety in gardening programmes and it's a great shame that we don't have that now, however GW was always a programme for the dedicated gardener as you yourselves demonstrate, I didn't learn anything from the Rachel de Thame creating a garden in a barracks nor from her flower arrangement for the Royal barge. GW seems to have lost it's focus sometimes and just spreads itself too thin.  What the BBC should be doing is making more programmes for those who want those side stories and leave GW to do what it used to do very well.

Oh if only Maud 

You are very naive if you believe the presenter controls the content