Wildlife gardening does not have to include buttercups or "native" trees and shrubs. How far back to "native"? Insects need pollen and nectar and don't care if it's native unless they are suicidally specific and narrow in plant range. Attractive plants work too.
Many pollinators are extremely specific about the plants they pollinate.
My cynical view about viewers’ videos is that it does not matter how cra.. sorry, unphotogenic, the garden is or how banal the advice, the garden will be included if the gardener is from an otherwise under-represented group on the programme. It’s box ticking.
Fine, it shows that not only wealthy middle class white people in perfect health can create a garden. I don't take issue with that, in principle. But they could just show us their gardens and, I dunno, their favourite plant. It doesn't HAVE to be how to plant a seed in order to show diversity in horticulture
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
"If you’ve planted your chilli seeds along with Monty, he takes us through the next steps of their growth and, as well as planting out some evergreen cuttings he has propagated, there’s plenty to be getting on with in the vegetable garden including planting beans.
Joe Swift gets some garden design and planting inspiration when he visits a shady courtyard garden in London and we travel to Dorset to get expert advice from a woman who grows chillies from all over the world.
In mid-Wales we visit a gardener whose back garden has been planted to remind her of her childhood home in Jamaica and Nick Bailey finds out about what can be done about an annoying pest which is spoiling box hedges. Our viewers have also been busy with their own hints and tips from their gardens."
I think chillies look great, though I'd grow them purely as a crop anyway. Last year I didn't get round to it, our supply ran out and we had to buy some - quelle horreur!
15 April:
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Really enjoyed tonight’s offering. Loved that West London garden, thought the chilli 🌶 lady was really interesting, and was astonished to see that Monty has rabbits ......how does he manage to grow anything at all 😱😱😱
Very interesting fact on how to test how hot a chilli is. But what on earth do they do with those chillies that register a million on the Richter Scale (or whatever the scale is for chilli heat?) If you have to double glove just to handle them you certainly wouldn't want to eat them!
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Many pollinators are extremely specific about the plants they pollinate.
Fine, it shows that not only wealthy middle class white people in perfect health can create a garden. I don't take issue with that, in principle. But they could just show us their gardens and, I dunno, their favourite plant. It doesn't HAVE to be how to plant a seed in order to show diversity in horticulture
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
"If you’ve planted your chilli seeds along with Monty, he takes us through the next steps of their growth and, as well as planting out some evergreen cuttings he has propagated, there’s plenty to be getting on with in the vegetable garden including planting beans.
Joe Swift gets some garden design and planting inspiration when he visits a shady courtyard garden in London and we travel to Dorset to get expert advice from a woman who grows chillies from all over the world.
In mid-Wales we visit a gardener whose back garden has been planted to remind her of her childhood home in Jamaica and Nick Bailey finds out about what can be done about an annoying pest which is spoiling box hedges.
Our viewers have also been busy with their own hints and tips from their gardens."
15 April: