The new hour-long GW.

[shovetheholly]

What are your thoughts?

I am really loving the new format. I like the way they are focusing not just on huge, uber-wealthy properties but on some small back gardens. I like the mix of stunningly beautiful, expertly-achieved gardens and amateur eccentricity. And I particularly like the focus back on technique, and doing things. It's lovely to see Carol Klein treated by the camera like the expert she is, instead of a gurning idiot pointing out that the top of the plant is called the "leaves" and the bottom is called the "root". I also find myself really warming to Adam Frost.

This thread is making me smile, I'm loveing the cat talk and grasses with googley eyes.

Ddog has been away whilst the builders are in, there have been numerous turf wars in our garden. NDN 3 legged cat the victor!

I've been give a large clump of Acanthus mollis, My mum dug the whole lot up as she doesn't like them. I've spent the day potting them up as I can't decide where to put them,

Enjoy GW tonight I'm off too work boo!

Given oops, really should proof read.

Oh holly what a lovely story.

I never see GW when on, I save it for when I need relaxing tv, hence being so behind on it. I've so much drama tv to catch up with and there's the problem of spoilers for those!

We used to have a cat that came on walks with me and the dog. We'd got him from RSPCA when he was tiny, and he seems to have looked at the dog and thought 'mummy' so thought he was a dog.

I must get a Chilean Guava - they sound to be wonderful plants.

They had asters on this week - I love asters, they seem to glow at this time of year. I heard him say it will be an hour long programme next year too. They have obviously read this thread!

I love asters too - must watch the programme. My Aster Mönch has been flowering for at least 2 months - wish I'd staked it better...

Wasn't that fella with the late flowering garden just lovely? And it looked so pretty. I struggle with asters - I'm too shaded for most of them, but I mean to try the more shade-tolerant varieties next year!

I did NOT warm to the Heseltines' garden. Everything was far too straight for me.

No - the Heseltines - how much money must that have cost over the years! It looked far too formal for me - like a throwback to 18th century gardens. And seemingly nowhere to sit outside and enjoy the flowers..:) . Mind you , it must be nice to have enough room to enjoy trees properly from a distance in their glory . They are much under rated I think, not surprisingly as gardens are so small these days

Those hedges were the most perfectly clipped I've ever seen, but the overall effect was just cold, cold, cold! They must have an army of gardeners doing them on a weekly basis. It reminded me of that film Last Year at Marienbad where the clipped, French-style garden becomes a kind of nightmarish metaphor for an overly-formal aristocratic society that is on the verge of some kind of psychotic breakdown!!

I'd quite like a garden big enough for golf buggies! Although I agree, with a garden that size and quite so pristine I imagine gardening is less of a pop out enjoy and instead a full-time job.
I actually loved the Heseltine's point on the trees, plant them in your 40's and you can enjoy them - it isn't just for the next generation. I've 10 years to get my land in order to enjoy the trees in my 80's

you will Clark - my trees, (in my ordinary but biggish size garden) have been planted 30 odd years now, and I love them - they are just getting into their stride - though my horsechestnut has some brittle branches - We have had to start doing some heavy tree pruning the last couple of years after a main branch tried to break off after one of the gales a few year ago.

We are quite lucky in our rented home, theres about 30 trees in total, we took down 2 plum trees that were diseased and the year before a giant elder was cut down.
I have a small log pile from the plum trees I am drying in the garage...just 2 years to wait until I can use them on the fire!! Our new home that fingers crossed goes through because I'm close to a nervous breakdown!! just has 3 beautiful silver birch in the front garden. We went round at the weekend to look at the garden again and start planning and realised our drive is going to be far smaller than originally planned due to these trees - my husbands suggestion at cutting them down almost resulted in my neck breaking as I turned to glare at him so quickly. We have realised though that all hedging at the front and side are covered in ivy and just touching them they wobble, so I am trying to convince him we need a low brick wall and pleached trees along the front for privacy ;)

keeping my fingers crossed for you - when do you find out ( if you know!)?

I am also hoping and wishing that you get your house clark! Your plans sound wonderful!

bookbook our offer was accepted, unfortunately the mortgage company after giving us an agreement in principal AND agreeing when we went in and did all the paperwork revoked their offer, we found out through the estate agents (its a whole other thread on mumsnet)
The estate agents were fantastic, put us in touch with a mortgage broker, he came to see us the same night and has got us another mortgage in principal thats actually better than our original! 1% less on a fixed rate for 5 years which saves about £70 a month - check me out sounding like a grown up with a clue about these things!! So now we've just got to get the valuation bit done by the mortgage company and submit an SA302 as opposed to our full accounts (both self employed)
However I have already been looking at the garden, pricing it all up and tryng to work out how to get the stuff I love with the stuff my husband loves...im going to donate a bit of the garden to him, (design wise - he's not actually allowed to touch it) so I can keep the rest but its SO hard. He wants an olive tree, my large tree fern and a BBQ hut - I just can't work out how to make Medeteranian, jungle and Scandanavian wood lodge all work on one patio entertaining area

That sounds like a true design challenge! I have let my DH redesign ( and work on) an old and tired front bit of ours. I am working hard at only offering advice , and help, when asked. It is not in my character. It only seemed fair as he now does such a lot in the garden with me, but by gum, it's not easy to keep quiet....

I am lucky in the sense that DH has quite a good eye for design, but is very hands-off. So he will often suggest something, but a bit tentatively, and he is right about 70% of the time!

Where we do have differences is that I like things flopping over paths and he moans because he can't get his bike out from the shed at the bottom of the garden as easily. I counter that, since he goes cycling for miles up bloody great hills, it can't be THAT hard to lift it a few yards through the back garden. But he will persist in pushing my lovely Erysmium 'bowles mauve' out of the way, to the point that it is now wonking all the wrong way, into the border rather than out over the edge. I have had to make entirely new cuttings of the thing so that I can replace it in the new year, when I shall put it well out of reach!

We have agreed, as part of the work we will have done on the house, to install a bike pod underneath the new extension which will keep the bloody machine out of the back garden altogether!!

Hah - the things that I love that DH puts the curse on - I love flopping things over edges! I had the most beautiful mallow, but it got cut to ribbons every time the grass cutter came out...... I finally admitted defeat on that.
shove - I don't know if of any interest, but Aldi had some topiary things arrive yesterday at our branch. I was only going past in the car, so cannot tell you which plant they have used, but they had balls, spirals and double balls. I was actually on the way to choose a tree for my elder daughter (Its part of her present for Christmas,) but I wanted to choose now. We had decided on the Prunus Amanogawa, so wanted a nicely pruned one. And it only just squeezed into the car ! I may have picked up a camellia and a couple of other things too...it's fatal being in a good nursery...

Oh wow, what a lovely present! I love that cherry tree - it's one of those brilliant plants for those situations where someone says sorrowfully that their garden (or a space therein) isn't large enough for a tree and you can do a big "TADA - what about THIS!" They are stunning too.

Thanks for the Aldi heads up - I will check out the topiary! They usually do box and bay, but there's always a chance it will be something different, because they do bring in new plants all the time. I am starting to get over my grief at the loss of all my topiary to blight and thinking of it as more room for different kinds of plants . It does mean I have quite a bit of space all of a sudden - strategically useful on those nursery trips, such as the one you've just had, when DH says "But we don't have any more rooooooom!"

Good work on the camellia btw!!

The camellia is actually for daughter too - as her husband doesn't want flower beds he has agreed to a couple of extra pots. I am frantically trying to figure out some planting ideas for big pots with year round interest. The camellia is plant 1 !

No flower beds??!

I am trying to think of pot ideas! I guess herbs might be one thing, but I'm sure you've already thought of that!! I have one with a really white variegated mint, chives, and thyme that looks quite nice for most of the year. I've managed to get an underplanted dogwood through this very dry summer in a pot as well, though it's difficult to keep that watered enough to stay happy. I will need to prune it hard if I want to keep it in there next year I think.

I know, sad eh? He likes things tidy, but doesn't want work in the garden. He does keep the grass cut.And does water things:) To be fair, they are busy, busy people.
I was thinking camellia in one - not sure I can do much else in that. But wondered about a dwarf evergreen( maybe a hebe) in the other. But I can't decide if I could get away with a trailing ivy perhaps, cyclamen and maybe some bulbs. They are quite big pots, so with John Innes 3 , slow release fertiliser., perlite ( and ericaceous compost for camellia) they might be okay for 2-4 years with a bit of careful watering and tending .

Yes - when you are really up against it in time terms, and you don't enjoy gardening or have any spare capacity to devote to it, I guess flower beds make no sense! Even a low-maintenance bed is quite a lot to deal with.

It's good that he likes watering, because that does open up so many options with pots! Love the idea of trailing ivy, cyclamen and bulbs - wonder if you could get away with drumstick alliums in there for mid-season interest?? Thinking of them because the foliage isn't quite so large and messy as the purple sensation type ones and I think they might possibly be slightly more drought-tolerant as well, though I could be wrong there. I've not tried them in a pot, though - perhaps they would be rather too messy??

I've just heard that my friends are buying a house! And it has a small garden that they have 'no clue' what to do with! I think I've just found a home for some of the plants I have to clear out of my own garden for the building work... and a new project. They have two beautiful young girls, so I definitely think a cool play area needs to be built...

ooh bookbook I have acquired some large pots and have spent far too much time thinking of what to plant .They are at the front of my house on a horrid hardstanding .

I have a variegated pieris japonica and I'm trying this www.potterandrest.co.uk/products/white-sea-campion sitting on some grit .
and some variegated ivy
and some forget me nots to fill in the spaces - they seem to be evergreen in my area ( London ) and easy to take out and replace with summer stuff .and I'm very fond of Silver Falls ,like this www.kawvalleygreenhouses.com/plants/Detail/1695

oh and I stick lamium in containers as well if I need a bit of easy to care filling

I've used ericaous soil for the pieris and I'm hoping the other stuff won't mind .I'm a very new gardener - what did using forget me nots as a winter bedding plant give me away !

Also thinking of ferns - I spent ages finding some sun tolerant evergreen ones and then deleted the document where I'd recorded them .

I've also spent ages researching pot caddys and castos for moving heavy pots .
Guess what - best to position the pot caddy before you fill the pot .Who knew ? Me ,impatient ? And couldn't wait for delivery of pot caddy ,too anxious to plant things ? Noooo,I wouldn't be that silly ....

And ...someone near me has pea shingle going free - would this be ok to use as drainage in a big pot ?