" Frances Tophill and the team celebrate the joy that the gardening year brings throughout the seasons.
Frances is at Wildside Garden in Devon, inspired to make the winter gardens sparkle and do jobs to get them ready for next spring. Nick Bailey visits a garden in Bedfordshire that blends soft grasses with textural trees and crisp topiary to create a space full of winter interest.
Advolly Richmond reveals the fascinating history of greenhouses along with the enormous challenges involved in engineering those early designs. Adam Frost gets stuck into some winter jobs, including chitting potatoes and planting up a container for seasonal interest.
In Northamptonshire, there's a collection of snowdrops with more than 650 varieties, and there's a man from Somerset whose world has been rocked by lithops - also known as living stones."
@AnniD, thank you so much for posting these regular updates, I find them very useful as a reminder and a summary of what to look forward to on GW Fridays. Hope you're enjoying the time vortex between Christmas and New Year – happy 2024 in advance!
Thanks from me as well @AnniD, I really enjoyed tonight's programme. I must go and see the Wildside Garden which is near Tavistock in Devon and not far from another very well known garden (whose name escapes me tonight!). Keith Wild used to be the Head Gardener there.
I hadn't realise that Frances T had a career on ITV before she came to GW.
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It's been interesting to read Chisto Lloyd (of Dixter) being very grumpy that he was never invited by the presenters (like G Hamilton) to featured on the show.
Last night's episode was as good, if not better, than most of the standard programmes. Really enjoyed it, apart from the Adam Frost bit (although his cat is cute).
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I really enjoyed Keith Wiley's stunning garden. I can recall him leaving his job as Head Gardener at The Garden House, with the view of gardening for himself rather than someone else, just down the road.The creation of the mounds was filmed for TV years ago. It was a huge undertaking to create areas that had the benefits of different aspects, genius, but then Keith Wiley is an unsung genius.
I have been lucky to visit Thenford and I am not suprised that Michael Heseltine has employed a Galanthus specialist. There are snowdrops growing under most of the trees and there are labels too to make it interesting. Good to know that there are more snowdrop immortals being added to the list.
I have also enjoyed Frances Tophill's presentation I think she is a Gardener's World star in the making.
I enjoyed the section about the history of greenhouses and learnt a few things.
I didn't realise that Thenbury was owned by Michael Hesletine, but it explained the naming of the snowdrop. I particularly admired the lady's green hair !
The winter garden that Nick visited was beautiful, but l suspect it was filmed last year. I can't recall the last time l saw low Winter sunlight like that, and l wonder if the grasses are as beautifully upright at the moment.
All in all, l thought it was very good. At least something new to watch and hopefully tide us over until the new series begins in March
Thenford is an amazing garden. I visited many years ago. At the time they only opened a few times a year and all the family were on hand, speaking to the visitors, estate staff had made cakes ably helped on the day by younger family members. The weather was lovely and it was a day to remember. I have just checked on line and it would seem there are now lots of open days especially for snowdrops. So Michael Heseltine is also a Snowdrop Immortal as well as his gardener! @AnniD I wanted to pull Nick Bailey's hat over his ears to keep them warm but guess that is not the fashion.. This programme to me was the best of the three and a great way to end GW 2023.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Posts
" Frances Tophill and the team celebrate the joy that the gardening year brings throughout the seasons.
Happy New Year to you too 😊.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I have been lucky to visit Thenford and I am not suprised that Michael Heseltine has employed a Galanthus specialist. There are snowdrops growing under most of the trees and there are labels too to make it interesting. Good to know that there are more snowdrop immortals being added to the list.
I have also enjoyed Frances Tophill's presentation I think she is a Gardener's World star in the making.
Finally Thankyou @AnniD for all your updates.
I didn't realise that Thenbury was owned by Michael Hesletine, but it explained the naming of the snowdrop. I particularly admired the lady's green hair !
The winter garden that Nick visited was beautiful, but l suspect it was filmed last year. I can't recall the last time l saw low Winter sunlight like that, and l wonder if the grasses are as beautifully upright at the moment.
All in all, l thought it was very good. At least something new to watch and hopefully tide us over until the new series begins in March
I have just checked on line and it would seem there are now lots of open days especially for snowdrops. So Michael Heseltine is also a Snowdrop Immortal as well as his gardener!
@AnniD I wanted to pull Nick Bailey's hat over his ears to keep them warm but guess that is not the fashion.. This programme to me was the best of the three and a great way to end GW 2023.