The 2026 Gardening Programme Thread

[NebulousSadTimes]

Welcome 🤗. Pull up a chair, or an upturned bucket, grab a handle-less mug of whatever takes your fancy, ignore the cobwebs in the corner, there are some seed catalogues on the potting bench for you to entertain yourself until someone else pops in to chat about whatever has taken their interest on the telly or radio in all matters gardening 🌻🐞🌿🐝🍄🐌

😂😂😂👏👏

Haha thanks for the compliments!

What did we think to the GW special episode on the QE2 tribute garden? I'm not sure what I was expecting - a lot more roses probably, albeit I realise they wouldn't be in flower yet. It seemed a little industrial - recycled building materials plus just...a lot of daffodils (200k bulbs!). Don't see why they couldn't have got rid of all the concrete from the previous use of the land. Maybe it will also be better when it becomes a more mature garden. The Head Gardener being interviewed indicated it was still a work in progress. I wonder if Monty actually liked it or not!

I liked seeing behind the scenes where they start off all the plants in the greenhouse - 280k plants! All their plastic pots were black/grey for some reason rather than the traditional terracotta. No doubt it will be something to do with recycling plastic.

Poor QE2, missing her 100th bday. I wonder if they were planning to do this garden (and the exhibition on her dresses which has just started in London) whether she was alive or not at this point.

I have 2 HRH Princess Catherine roses which I bought last year when they were launched so interested to see if they flower this year. (Pink floribunda).

Useful section on magnolias at the end. Francis defo has the "likeability" factor.

And quite interesting about the "swail" water ditch.

NO JOBS FOR THE WEEKEND?!

There's a whole rose garden in Regent's Park already, I don't think it needs any more of them. There's a lot of concrete in London, I think it's good to show how to use more unusual (hyper local!) recycled materials. I worked somewhere that used crushed concrete fines for paths - it's cheap, compacts well, easy for staff/volunteers to lay, wheelchair accessible, drains quite well. I think it's spelled swale btw, I'd love one but I'd need a much bigger garden. No jobs = a weekend off from gardening, right?!

Copying my thoughts from the GW thread - I really enjoyed the QE2 garden episode. Matt Pottage is a regular on GQT, so when Monty mentioned him I knew I had a good horticulture episode to look forward to. Good to see them actively deciding to go for small plants to let them mature in place (well, except for that fuck off massive magnolia tree). Showing the current trend of naturalistic style gardening, loved the species tulips. Working with the soil(/concrete) rather than trying to change it. Chats with staff and volunteers from a range of backgrounds. Seeing the background of how to make a good garden is so much more interesting to me than the finished product.

I want to like Advolly, but it always feels like she's reading out loud rather than presenting.

Hmm. No sign of Beechgrove tonight either "live" or on the iplayer.

Beechgrove times for this week, courtesy of Beechgrove on FB

Thursday 20:00 BBC SCOTLAND
Friday 19:30 BBC TWO
Monday 06:30 BBC TWO
Monday 15:30 BBC SCOTLAND

I was a bit underwhelmed by the Queen's garden episode of GW. I didn't mind the water tower but didn't like the metal stuff 'growing' up it. It was nice to see Matthew Pottage, I like him on GQT.

@NebulousSadTimes you and I posted simultaneously!

Odd - I cannot see Beechgrove for today on the Radio Times or on the BBC live section of iplayer.

Hello Gardeners, I just found this thread.

I watch quite a few of the gardening programmes. I have actually learnt the most about gardening from a radio programme though!

The programme is The Garden Party on BBC Radio Norfolk (BBC Sounds). I have found relevant questions and answers for my small suburban garden here and the experts really know their stuff from hands on experience ( you can talk I’m a fan! Been listening 12 years 🤣)

They have spoilt the programme recently by insisting on playing music during the phone-in format but I still listen to the gardening advice.

Gardeners’ World irritates me quite a lot (community gardens… and CONSTANTLY repeating “Gardening is good for well-being and mental health.” I like Monty though so I watch with the sound turned off and only turn it up for the odd plant or garden that I like!

Love Beechgrove despite the 70s Blue Peter feel 🤣

@Neitherherenorthere welcome!

Yeah I HATE the community gardens/mental 'elf stuff and I totally know what you mean about the Blue Peter vibe!

Beechgrove has suddenly appeared on iplayer.

Good to know 🤣

Eurgh, I hate grasses! So 1970s/80s and depressing. Plus don't want anyone to think I'm a swinger!

Good to see a section on weeds, as demanded in the "Gardener's World, what a shame" threat! I have a patio knife but it took out all the pointing! I've found pouring on boiling water works well. I don't want to use chemicals as I have a cat.

"Wa'er" - WATER!

My bugbear is the "USE PEAT FREE COMPOST" lecture, every week.
I do, you can't get peaty compost these days, but it is all rubbish and much harder work.

Next presenter to say the dreaded phrase (Monty, I'm looking at you) may be buried head first in a bag of the dry, twiggy, papery stuff.

Welcome @Neitherherenorthere and thank you for the programme recommendation.

The section on Beechgrove about weeds last night could have been just a wee bit more useful if there had been more of a closeup of the weeds he was naming and gathering and throwing in the bucket, all in a flash. That was a hell of an easy dock to get up, I wonder if he'd been working at it before filming.

Lolling at you not wanting folk to think you're a swinger @AntiqueVases 😅

I am using some mushroom compost that I bought at springbridge that was about 70 quid for a bulk bag to try and break up some of my gault clay , it’s like digging through concrete at the moment
I had some lovely pelargoniums turn up from fibrex which I am potting on next week

so what do we all think will be covered tonight , Adams new garden ?

@FuzzyPuffling "peat free compost" is a bit like "moist but well drained soil" and "begin by frying some chopped garlic and onion"

Why can this anemone farmer on Gardeners' World not pronounce the word anemone? And Monty can't, either!

Sometimes I feel depressed watching GW. Monty saying that he can't plant tomatoes outside until mid-June.

We really only get 3 months every year don't we, when it's genuinely nice? And even during summer it can sometimes be rainy/stormy. I reckon there are only a handful of days when I can actually SIT in my garden.

Most gardening is just...waiting...for those very, very few days when it looks nice.

Eh again, no jobs for the weekend?

Quite enjoyed tonight

Well I potted up my tomatoes and put them outside this morning. Unlike Monty, I do not have a greenhouse or anywhere else to put them .

Crack on tomatoes!

I know what you mean @AntiqueVases I have been known to sit out wearing a big coat and nursing a hot chocolate. I refuse to be beaten by cold! I will go out when it’s wet but not actually raining. I’m resigned to wiping down my plastic chair…

I think you can still enjoy the sounds, shapes and colours of the season we are in.

I love a dramatic moody sky with wet, dark and jagged branches of a cherry tree dripping with raindrops like little diamonds 😊

I went to the grass garden at Kew once (late summer I think) and I have to say, it was stunning
not sure if it would work so well on a domestic scale though

https://www.dobies.co.uk/garden-equipment/growing-accessories/all/moorland-gold-compost_mh5974
this compost has peat- it's reclaimed from reservoirs or something
it's very expensive though so I only use it for seeds

Bob Flowerdew's recommendation for seed compost is to sieve and mix mole hill earth and leaf mould together. It works!