This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Celebrating the GW Forum as a Fantastic Educational Resource

As we begin the new year, I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the forum for its contribution to gardening education internationally. It's sometimes hard to step back and see the years of impact the platform has had on so many people, especially new growers - the help, advice, links, perspectives and leads it has offered. The work represents tens of thousands of volunteer hours here, given for more than a decade - dedicated to supporting learners.
GW is one of the world's best known gardening brands, and as such the forum brings in over three million views a year, internationally. Most of the people behind these views will never register or comment. They are silent readers, just here for the learning; this is why the forum was initially set up and why it continues to help so many millions of people. Perhaps we take its primary purpose for granted.
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The archive of forum threads represents a invaluable, long term resource too. Over 80 000 pages of forum discussion are searchable by engines like Google. It's a formidable library of ideas, held in perpetuity.
I hope we can continue to remember and take clear note of the invisible majority who use the forum. Clear and unique thread titles help with searching for topics. Non-responses to spammers help the threads make logical and useful sense for the decades to come. Adding links to strong sources helps readers to explore issues and evidence. All gardening questions are useful as we can be sure that thousands of people will read the thread in future. The thread is there as much for future readers as the original writer.
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So a grand Hurrah! to everyone who has given so much over the years: those contributors who have come and gone, those here for many years who continue to generously help as well as the new arrivals. And Hurrah to all those growers who have benefitted from the forum and will hopefully pass their own experiences on. Long may the community, the learning and the archive continue to grow!
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It’s also a friendly place to post. Long may it continue 😁.
The responsibility, the reach! Eek! 😁
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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Blandness and poor, unsubstantiated advice will soon reign.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
It is sad that posters with a lot of experience, and who have been here for many years, now feel unable to stay for whatever reason. That is their perogative and l respect that.
I am not going to enter into a slanging match with other members, we are all entitled to an opinion, and mine is that that it is pointless making constant comments about the direction they feel the forum is taking.
It doesn't alter anything that has already taken place.
It may be more forthcoming to take up your concerns with @Catherine Mansley who is the face of Immediate Media (for want of a better expression), and see if she will explain, on the forum, the reasons behind the action taken in the threads concerned.
I am quite happy to do that if anyone is unwilling or unable to do this for whatever reason.