Gardeners World

[Houseplanter]

Is it me or is this way past its best.

I want to know how to DO things.. what to plant, where, when. How to propagate.

Monty we don't have gardens big enough to leave to go wild and mow a path through..

I don't want to see endless videos of other peoples gardens either.

I remember Geoff making some obelisks out of two by two timber with an old ball cock on the top, painted, to grow stuff up. Monty bought about eight wrought iron obelisks at £700 each. 🤷🏼‍♀️

You can watch beechgrove garden on iplayer.

ie: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rv41/beechgrove-garden-beechgrove-repotted-episode-16

I'm intrigued by the nutters and freaks.. I really dont remember these at all 😆

I don't think Monty will continue for a lot longer, so maybe there will be a fresh look at it when they change presenters. I just hope they go back to basics a bit and not continue with all the airy fairy stuff. Community gardening and mental wellbeing doesn't need to be mentioned every episode surely.

Thanks to those who suggested Beechgrove; will take a look.

Beechgrove garden is so much better especially if you live in the north of England or Scotland. Practice advice and cost saving ideas, not let’s plant 2 hydrangeas in tubs that the plants alone would cost £40.00 each, or adding 3 large perennials to the border every week again at a minimum cost of £20.00 per plant. I want to know about division, cuttings and seed sowing on a windowsill.

@Houseplanter the freaks of the week are always identifiable by the Curb Your Enthusiasm style music that accompanies their antics eg obsessive gooseberry cultivation

I love Frances Tophill - she could be a good replacement for Monty imho

Going on about Community Gardens gets them off the hook from the awkwardness around 'And here's another segment about somebody with a house costing over a million pounds that they've filled with thousands of pounds of expensive house plants - next will be the person with a minor stately home their husband bought for 50p in 1974 and the wonderful national collection of (insert random plants that grow larger than the average council terrace) they've created from just around six million quid in stock, hard landscaping and staff wages over the last half century . Haven't they done marvellously all by themselves all these years? The dedication and hard work in pointing at the top field and telling the Gardener to plant stuff and make sure it doesn't die is incredible, isn't it?'.

Same way the CG plug is 'OK, so you're in crap accommodation, skint, see concrete everywhere and your block of flats is built upon the last allotment that existed in your town. It'll cheer you up to go and fill a planter by the nearest Rail station and then see it trashed by the following Saturday. Don't forget your needle proof gardening gloves'.

Anyone but Carol please.
And I love love love the obsessive fanatics. I love seeing their joy and detail.

The viewers' gardens are my favourite part of the show. I like to see what's achievable in an average sized garden without an army of gardeners.

I like Monty but I prefer Adam Frost these days. I bought one of his books filled with practical advice on DIY gardening. I still need to brave tackling my garden though.

I like Monty but as a pp said it's very unattainable for a lot of people.

I just watched on iPlayer and there was a man with amazing house plants (not the tropical one). A few weeks ago I watched a slightly quirky woman who just grew one type of plant - some sort of succulent I think.

I'll check out the suggested alternative!!

On the last Beechgrove series they trialled several varieties of potatoes grown in tubs. At the end they tipped out each one, and weighted the crop. Then they cooked some of each variety and commented on the taste, so very useful when you are deciding which variety to grow.
i like Monty, though he's not of this world. Can't stand Adam and Carol, people who are so excessively jolly all the time. Frances is very good, she is much more down to earth.

I love Adam. He’s happy, calm and funny all in one.

Monty is definitely past his sell-by. I'm bored of him filling pots (bingo points for GRIT!!) and digging holes to insert random stuff in the jewel / spring / long / whatever border. Am I allowed to say that I don't actually like Longmeadow? It may look nice in RL but, to me, it doesn't come across on camera. I like Adam's garden: the difference being that he's a designer, not just a plantsman.

And why does GW ignore lawns? I was so pleased when Adam had a lawn in his new place but then he went all wildflower meadow, just like all the other presenters (but not their watchers: we still want somewhere to play with the DGC, to have a sunny lunch, act as a foil to the borders, etc).

However, I do quite like the idea of a winter series to get our gardening juices going.

I agree Frances for the next main presenter. She's great.

Tbh I'd like them to film Gardeners Question Time down the pub.

Monty looks bored.

Ha. I've been on GW twice and have a garden bigger (but similar) to Monty Don. Love him, love his garden, which rather endorses the general opinions here- I'm not typical and I already know what I'm doing, so Monty's for me, but perhaps not for others. I've also been on Beechgrove which I loathe and despise. It's awful, banal, just no. Garden snob muchly. I'd say I have high standards - for me gardening's an art form.
On the other hand my just-starting-gardening daughter with her bog standard newish-build back garden has been much inspired by Monty and Adam Frost. I agree about the D S sisters: pure gold.

Yes I think it is past it’s best I barely watched it last year and didn’t miss it.

i do love the viewers gardens when they offer practical ideas but less interested in the bonkers collections or crazy planting schemes.

i hate the fancy gardens just not interested, i like a couple of nice flower borders and definitely some fruit and veg.

as for next presenter I find Frances a bit dull, carol is too lyrical. I do like Adam he has a new podcast with a girl from good food magazine about growing and cooking. He is hilarious but equally a bit cringe, she starts talking about food and he starts having a food orgasm in the corner (behave Adam!) other than that he seems down to earth.

I think Monty is completely out of touch and there's a smugness about him that irritates me. It's easy to have a beautiful garden when you have lots of space, help and money!!

But I do like watching GW as I generally find it gentle and soothing.

I wish they'd do more practical segments, managing pests, what to do when weeds get out of hand (non nuke them route!) gardening when you have no time/money etc.

I loved the guy with the indoor plants but I was really hoping he would tell us how he avoids house plant issues like fungus flies!

I did enjoy the houseplant guy (no surprises that I like a houseplant or 10) but again he didn't even tell us what they were!

Some detailed info about propagation would have been good too, as well as pest control.

I like Monty -nice relaxing tv- but don’t always watch to the end as I’ve watched gardening progs for decades so know most of it, have poor soil in a cold part of the country so much advice is a waste of time and am happy with the same successful plants with only a bit of variation ,and I get that from magazine/ online /seed catalogues.

Just stuff like a close up of how to identify whether a road is climbing or rambling, how to spot particular pests, how to create wire baskets for leaf mould creation, how to create and turn compost properly, how to fix a leaky pond, how to get rid of duckweed, how to make a pathway, which plants to pick for shade or dry conditions or wet areas etc are far more useful to me than seeing viewers gardens. Viewers gardens are when I pick up my phone and stop paying attention.

I wish they'd do more practical segments, managing pests, what to do when weeds get out of hand (non nuke them route!) gardening when you have no time/money etc.
Yes. I get fed up with the professionals saying, "look at my perfect garden". I want more addressing of our RL problems.

GW is basically a lifestyle progamme now. Great if you like that sort of thing, but it's not aimed at the amateur gardener now.

I like watching/listening to Monty - though I do have to switch off the bit of my mind which, unfortunately, knows that he's not a very nice person in RL. He had an absolute rant about people using the term 'horticulturalist' rather than 'gardener' recently, and it was such a twatty way to punch down (people working in horticulture are generally quite badly paid, because there's a perception you don't need much professional skill and 'anyone could do it' - and no surprise, women are worse paid than men).

I find Carol's overly 'smiley' voice very irritating. Frances I like, and Rekha.

I don't like the viewers' gardens. I would much rather see a garden that's big and grand - but which can show me something interesting - than yet another person doing that 'ooh look we grew some slightly shit plants but here's my cute toddler, aww' thing.

I wish, as well, they'd stop banging on about peat (yes, we know ...) and talk more about actual, useful steps to take around climate change. I'd like to know more about how experts are breeding new plants and what we might expect to be changing.

I stopped watching GW when I discovered Longmeadows isn’t called Longmeadows…it’s a made up name for TV. Gutted to say the least!