It irritates me so much that it's all such a con - suggesting that gardening is about planting plants. It just seems to fuel the 'disposable plant' industry in supermarkets and gcs. People buy a load of stuff, don't look after it. Stuff dies and they go and buy some more.
It irritates me so much that it's all such a con - suggesting that gardening is about planting plants. It just seems to fuel the 'disposable plant' industry in supermarkets and gcs. People buy a load of stuff, don't look after it. Stuff dies and they go and buy some more.
That's television for you. A highly edited, contrived and idealised version of real life. It can be entertaining of course but any connection with the outside world is tenuous at best.
Ground Force was really the first of the makeover shows. Alan T was the only known face on it. Bit unfair to make comparisons. The problem with online videos of any kind is that they can still give inaccurate information, and often viewers have no way of knowing that. It's why we regularly see people asking for help in the forum
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The show is a bit of fun and serves to advertise the garden designer industry. It also says to the non-gardener, look - you could sort out your garden and make it usable quickly, so it serves as a positive motivating force.
I do look at the brief design presentations for ideas, thr hard landscaping implementation too - but no, its not a “gardening” show.
Big Dreams Small Spaces is good...think its a few years old though...as presenter Monty looks younger...Its more of an advice programme than a hands on for Monty.. They show it on Together channel 269 on virgin ..Monty gives advice for garden owners,,he gets involved a bit ...tells them what to do....then comes back few weeks later to see how its going ...It has a more " real" feeling than GF did.. They show the warts and all view..where something started out as easy...then they hit a brick wall ...literally ..or a pipe in the garden ..that causes problems
Big Dreams Small Spaces is good...think its a few years old though...as presenter Monty looks younger...Its more of an advice programme than a hands on for Monty.. They show it on Together channel 269 on virgin ..Monty gives advice for garden owners,,he gets involved a bit ...tells them what to do....then comes back few weeks later to see how its going ...It has a more " real" feeling than GF did.. They show the warts and all view..where something started out as easy...then they hit a brick wall ...literally ..or a pipe in the garden ..that causes problems
I dont think Monty is keen on the attention, or needs the work(!) but Id love him to bring this back.
Hand over GW if needs be and do a full Monty (ha ha) weekly show.
In fact if theres a way to edit down the decades of GW to just the Monty compilation that would be great.
Or Charlie Dimmock, just one hour of her gardening, like Carol Klein’s Cortage Garden series.
Or an hour from the Rich brothers purely on garden design.
I'm not sure why Monty gets so many negative comments but I acknowledge it's all down to personal taste etc. I've always found GW an interesting and varied programme to watch and if I take one useful gardening snippet from it then it's been worth watching. I think they've done well to continue the series this year even if some episodes include films previously shown but.....getting back to Monty, I think that during these extremely stressful months we've had and continue to be going through, his presentation skills have always had a calming effect and just for that one hour of viewing it ticked the box for me! So what if he's a dog lover...there's always the off button! PS I am old enough to remember Geoff Hamilton btw! 👍
Monty Don doesn't come across as a particularly experienced gardener. He's a good presenter and obviously enjoys gardening for pleasure but the likes of Geoff Hamilton ( and even Alan Titchmarsh when he isn't doing his lovey dovey bit ) are far more practical and knowledgeable.
Hmm...I'm not so sure about that. MD may have his detractors (including me at times) but I think he's a competent gardener.
I have nothing against Monty but 'competent gardener' would seem to ge a fair assessment. Geoff Hamilton, Alan Titchmarsh, Adam Frost etc were/are gardeners first and preseenters very much second, at least in their early days. AT moved on quite quickly to other things, but the passion of GH and AF for gardening are clear to see.
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The problem with online videos of any kind is that they can still give inaccurate information, and often viewers have no way of knowing that.
It's why we regularly see people asking for help in the forum
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I do look at the brief design presentations for ideas, thr hard landscaping implementation too - but no, its not a “gardening” show.
Or Charlie Dimmock, just one hour of her gardening, like Carol Klein’s Cortage Garden series.
Or an hour from the Rich brothers purely on garden design.