Garden programs

[hagausb]

Any recommendations?

Beechgrove for practicality, Gardener's World for the gloriously soothing experience that is Monty Don and his beautiful garden. All those garden makeovers - well, just remember they're about as representative of real gardening as TOWIE is of young adulthood in the Home Counties.

Excellent advice @Purplewithred

I love seeing viewers' gardens on GW ... it's wonderful to see what they have achieved, often in tricky circumstances.

What sort of programme are you looking for - a garden make-over programme, or aHow-to-garden type programme?

The makeover programmes tend to be a bit...

Seven burly blokes, none of whom are gardeners, do an enormous amount of hard landscaping, paint everything in sight an unnatural colour and instal an unlikely water feature in a weekend, then a couple of people come in armed with £15 grand of plants and shove them in willy-nilly irrespective of whether they will either survive, or look right in five years time

...school of gardening.

If anyone knows of a reliable source of older episodes of Gardener's World then I'm all ears - and might be a source for the OP too

I love Gardeners World. I’ve learnt loads and I find it so calm and soothing. When Monty starts the programme with his ‘hello’ I can feel myself relax and know that I’m in safe hands.

I don’t like the garden makeover type programmes anymore. I think they hugely over-plant and over-fill and create problems in terms of maintenance, when most of the gardens that feature belong to people who can’t commit to lots of ongoing maintenance.

As above, really. Other great programmes - both for tutorials and for visits to beautiful and inspiring gardens - are the series that Carol Klein did for Channel 5. They’re on My5 if you search for her name there.

If you can get hold of it on DVD then “The Victorian Kitchen” garden series with Harry Dodson, Peter Thoday and Ruth Mott is not only the best gardening TV show I’ve ever seen, but also my most favourite programme ever. Literally the most informative programme, while also being amusing and light. A must see for any gardener- the series “Victorian Flower Garden” and “War time kitchen and garden” are part of the same series and are on YouTube, but Kitchen Garden is the best one.

Otherwise Gardener’s World is ok, and YouTube for programmes featuring Christopher Lloyd and Rosemary Verey - their Desert Island Discs appearances are also on BBC Sounds - they’re superb.