Gardeners World - What a shame

[Chumpfriend]

Am I being unreasonable to think that Gardener’s World has jumped the shark?

It’s honestly a travesty of what went before and in no way makes anyone with a modest garden feel capable of creating a garden or delivers any meaningful advice.

There are BBC tropes and messaging rammed down your throat and literally nothing that relates to any ordinary gardener at this time of year.

The Beechwood Garden is a shadow reference to the old GW but I’m so disappointed at such a lost opportunity to make people feel like they can have a go at growing stuff.

Geoff Hamilton may be turning in his grave.

But actual meaningful gardening advice for those without cash to splash is few and far between. Gardening shouldn’t be the preserve of the wealthy.

There's plenty of meaningful advice for those who have little spare cash. There are many features about growing from seed, both veg and ornamentals. Plenty of segments about how to take cuttings of various types and how to divide perennials. All of those cost very little to nothing. Given doing that could provide a whole garden for almost nothing I don't know what else you want.

There are always people giving away pots, greenhouses etc on Gumtree etc, I even got a really nice one from my local tip when I took some rubbish there. My local garden centre has an area where people can leave plastic pots and people are encouraged to take them for nothing.No one says you have to have Wichford Pottery like Monty does.

Also gardening is a hobby. Most hobbies are not free, in fact many cost much more than gardening. The programme caters for people for whom gardening is their hobby and they're willing to spend on it, especially on sizeable plants. But as above, it also needn't cost much at all, if you're willing to wait.

I think your accusation is unfounded.

I don’t. If you only watched GW you’d thing gardening consisted of unloading yet another plastic pot from a natty trolley having researched the correct place for the plant it contains. There is way too much of that and not enough pushing other methods to fill gardens. Francis touched on it last week and Recka( whom is rarely on) touches on it with veg.

I don't think "your average beginner gardener" is the bulk of the audience, to be frank. The viewership has an average age of 57, is 80% female, skews towards affluence and empty nesters. That's not the demographic you're describing.

A "beginner gardener" I would guess has only gardened for a year or two at most. After that, they'd get bored watching the same "how to sow seeds, how to prune, when to plant bare root shrubs" etc.

GW frequently touches on the basics for anyone new to it, but also on new trends in planting and landscaping, shows aspirational gardens, and in the Jobs For The Weekend gives every gardener a nudge for seasonal chores. I still learn new bits when I dip in.

I like it when they go to someone planting out a new garden and return to it through the year, it's great.

Ha ha!!! Love this. Yes to 5,000 courgettes at a unit cost (including labour) of about £20 a courgette

But shouldn’t they be catering for all as all demographics pay their license fee.

@theallypallywasp - it's the same with chickens and quail. When I factor in the costs of building the aviary, bedding, food, supplements etc each chicken egg probably cost me a quid and each quail egg about £35

We do it for love, not for saving money.

Also you’re still a gardner and part of the gardening world even if a beginner. Posts below have listed all sorts of skills many of us with a few years under our belts would like to learn too. You’re always learning .

I do like Alan Titschmarsh but I must admit I do laugh a bit when, on his youtube channel, he buys a wooden planter, pours in a ton of shop-bought compost then puts in about 6 mature shop-bought plants! A couple of hundred quid at least!

Also, it's a bit like saying you're a baker when you've bought a cake and then put the cherries on top yourself!

No. Every programme on TV doesn't need to cater to everyone who pays their licence fee. Things like planting seeds or plants you can easily read on the packet/instructions or Google. It would get boring if they spent too much time on stuff like that. They could do a separate beginner show I guess. Personally I just bought a book about it when I first started. Alan Titchmarsh How to be a Gardener I think it was called.
I don't think GW should change a winning formula.

Although come to think of it they already show seeds and plants being planted and explain how it works every week. So they already do it

The lengthy list of many skills as regards gardening missing from GW ( not just seed sowing)that others would like to see are below.

Just watched Beechgrove followed by GW. What a contrast, one covered planting food/flowers in small pots, the other a massive garden (Mr Don actually said "only 2 acres") funded by the wealth of hereditary power and money.

Which one is more relevant to the 70 million people living in the UK?

So you think that no one who isn't fabulously rich should be allowed to see any large gardens then? That viewing, marvelling, admiring the beauty, design and horticultural skills in a large garden should be restricted to those who own similar?

Because that's what you're essentially saying by stating that such gardens are not relevant to the majority of the UK population.

I think that's a truly appalling view to take. Presumably then you also don't think the general public should be able to visit stately homes or go to museums and art galleries to see masterpieces of art and sculpture, because they couldn't afford them?

Why should a gardening programme always focus on the average person in their 3 bed semi and tiny garden? What's wrong with showing other ways that people live, other fantastic gardens, and let people simply enjoy looking at a beautiful creation.

Beauty, wonder, the admiration of expert skills, surely they expand the mind and your life experience? Looking at a beautiful garden can be as emotional an experience as looking at a wonderful piece of art. Why should people be denied that experience, even if it is only a few moments on a TV screen in a gardening programme?

Sounds like the BBC is pitching more than one gardening show to appeal to different audiences.

On GW tonight, Monty Don toured a new garden in Regents Park to commemorate the Queen. It was made of recycled and reclaimed dilapidated greenhouses and outbuildings, planted up with the help of volunteers, and free and open to all comers in a public park.

Do you watch GW every week? I do and today wasn't typical. They devoted today's episode to a garden that the public will have free access to. Nothing wrong with them doing a special on a new public garden. They cover all sizes of garden normally

I am looking forward to a trip there late summer

I really enjoyed last night's 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 show the active decision 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 (though I did love last week's 60 year old garden).

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

Yes I do. It was a whole programme about a new garden, with very little actual gardening. As I've stated up thread, it's called Gardener's World

I have a large birder that seems to be of gault clay which has turned into concrete
on the subject of compost I had delivered a ton bag / bulk bag of mushroom compost to mulch over it it cost £70 pounds

I know! I do it for the joy of pottering

He did a programme a bit like this- it's on youtube: Love your Garden or something? He doesn't take control like Stacey S he listens to their ideas, shudders slightly at the tackier ones and makes a few suggestions then returns to see how they got on. It's so entertaining especially as people often want to fill it with gnomes etc.

One young woman made a very pretty, fairy themed garden but she kept saying 'its finished' at the end of the programme which made Monty wince. The reason it'd never be like SYLO is the same reason gardening is addictive: its NEVER finished!

But I love gardeners world- its relaxing, the photography is lovely, and I'm fine with wildlife gardening- there's a whole mix of styles on there.