I feel i must reply to the post by "an avid gardener"post no. 143, (in response to earthmummy). How dare you say that anyone who wears gloves while gardening is only playing at it.I have been gardening for many years and have designed and landscaped 4 gardens of my own from "green field sites in the last 30 years.I have worn gloves for most of this time after a bad experience I suffered when working in my mothers garden.I was laying a path when after a few weeks I became seriously ill.Doctors later told me that I had pick up germs from the soil, probibly from rats urine which caused me to develop severe jundice. I was very ill for several months(and in very severe pain)to this day I suffer with liver problems. So if you think you are a real gardener because you do not wear gloves then let me tell you that you are just a fool.Yes its fine to work in "clean"compost but if any of you are working in the soil for long periods of time then please try to wear gloves of some sort
Sorry that I have strayed from the origonal theme of this blog but it had to be said keep wearing your gloves earthmummy,from 1 REAL gardener to another.
Poor deemac having to go through all that and be insulted by some idiot that does not understand the real point of gardening gloves(143 earthmummy). Perhaps she wants to be return to the earth mummy. My mum has nursed people who have suffered similar problems and has always drummed it in to us that gloves are for a reason when working with soil.Also she got pneumonia after turning a compost heap and always ties a scarf round her face if she does it now as they warned her at the hospital that fungal chest complaints are often caused by this. So hurrah for deemac who still gardens despite everything.
Also I agree with DaveH - i am so put off by GW with monty that I too will give up watching. I liked Toby and I felt he taught me lots but monty is awful to watch and not that good at gardening.
I always watch Gardeners World and any other gardening programme that comes on, because I am a keen gardener (my son accuses me of being obsessed!). Incidentally, I loved Geoff and Alan and they are responsible for my love of gardening, along with my mother's influence!
I grow vegetables and all garden plants, a lot from seed, some I buy from garden centres, some propogated and some given by friends or as gifts. I have a small suburban garden which I have redesigned and developed myself over the last 12 years. I have acquired a fair amount of knowledge and need to acquire much more. I enjoy visiting all kinds of gardens. I work part-time as a gardener and I almost always wear gloves, though sometimes I forget and end up covered in mud to my elbows.
I shall continue to watch Gardeners World and expect it to do what it has always done and that is entertain, inform and inspire any number of it's viewers for the most part. I shall enjoy some of the presenters more than others. There will be topics covered which may not appeal to me. I will be told things I already know and will learn much that is new.
I don't think I'll get angry about the programme content and make nasty personal remarks about the presenters. There'll be plenty of variety, I am sure.
I love gardening - always have but I can not tolerate the BBC behaving so badly. You may have told your son to be nice and quite right too - but why did nobody tell the BBC to do the same. I expect you told your son to play nicely and take turns too. Well would you not have been cross if someone came and snatched back something that he was taking his turn on? that is what has happened here and the BBC is supposed to be somewhat more adult than a child.Obviously it was not properly brought up. I will enjoy the gardening, visiting,working and learning I just choose not to do so when something so unjust has been done.I have stacks of books and lots of clever gardening friends I will learn from them and do well without GW.
Might as well pitch in with my two pen'orth as well.
Echoing many of the posters above, I think that: a) Monty lacks substance, and his GW Magazine columns are frankly dull b) Carol has again been poorly treated - yet to me always seems comfortably the most expert contributor c) I feel sorry for Toby. Though his personality doesn't come across well on tv, he appears to be carrying the can for the 'GW-Lite' debacle - which I very much doubt was his idea d) Alys should certainly have been retained, as she brought something genuinely different e) Joe's cheeky-chappy cockney faux-banter is absolutely not to my taste, but I can see that some may like it f) it seems clear that a single 30 minute lowest-common-denominator programme can please no single viewer, so why hasn't the BBC recognised that? g) there must surely be a continuing rationale for developing an existing garden AND starting a new one, as there are a lot of new houses built & sold each year. Further, as new starter-houses will presumably be typically bought by younger people, might it be worth creating an additional programme format for developing small bare-ground plots into gardens which are suitable for young families - with appropriate presenters?
Still and all, I expect that I'll bump along with New and Improved GW2011 and only the odd exasperated sigh - after all, I always have.
Just give Toby a programme with Alys - they are both great and the BBC are daft to dismiss their talent and obvious intelligent advice. Give a GW lite prog to monty as he is not so well versed in real gardening. Carol is good on her progs and has 6 weeks run on at the moment. Toby has been very badly treated and I think it is time some one at the BBC was made to explain to his loyal viewers why their enjoyment has been wrecked so that old time gardening can return to the screens.
I'm sure this one will rumble on for some time but sorry BBC you've lost me as a Gardeners World viewer. I was an avid viewer for Geoff Hamilton and Alan Titchmarsh but could never warm to Monty Don. I rediscovered GW under Toby and the team although I always thought Carol Klein should have been given the job! The enthusiasm of Carol and Alys has rejuvenated my interest in gardening and I will continue to follow their articles in Gardens Illustrated. Monty's style however leaves me cold. Has it occurred to BBC that the poor viewing figures recently are also due to terrible scheduling? Why should their one gardening programme a week be pushed aside by sport etc? If the audience is important give them the continuity they deserve. So thank you Toby, Alice, Carol and Joe but unfortunately until you give them their own programmes for gardeners like me I won't be back.
Extremely annoyed that Toby and Alys will not be in the new series. Having Monty Don is turning back the clock and what a lot of drivel about real gardeners will enjoy the new series. Also what a waste of money to us License payers, more money down the drain by the BBC. Comments are made about it not being a real garden, the Beechgrove Garden moved from the BBC studios to ground on the outskirts of Aberdeen and has been very successul. If anyone is to blame for something being wrong, it is the director and the planners of the series not Toby and Alys.
Posts
gloves then let me tell you that you are just a fool.Yes its fine to work in "clean"compost but if any of you are working in the soil for long periods of time then please try to wear gloves of some sort
Sorry that I have strayed from the origonal theme of this blog but it had to be said keep wearing your gloves earthmummy,from 1 REAL gardener to another.
Poor deemac having to go through all that and be insulted by some idiot that does not understand the real point of gardening gloves(143 earthmummy). Perhaps she wants to be return to the earth mummy. My mum has nursed people who have suffered similar problems and has always drummed it in to us that gloves are for a reason when working with soil.Also she got pneumonia after turning a compost heap and always ties a scarf round her face if she does it now as they warned her at the hospital that fungal chest complaints are often caused by this. So hurrah for deemac who still gardens despite everything.
Also I agree with DaveH - i am so put off by GW with monty that I too will give up watching. I liked Toby and I felt he taught me lots but monty is awful to watch and not that good at gardening.
I grow vegetables and all garden plants, a lot from seed, some I buy from garden centres, some propogated and some given by friends or as gifts. I have a small suburban garden which I have redesigned and developed myself over the last 12 years. I have acquired a fair amount of knowledge and need to acquire much more. I enjoy visiting all kinds of gardens. I work part-time as a gardener and I almost always wear gloves, though sometimes I forget and end up covered in mud to my elbows.
I shall continue to watch Gardeners World and expect it to do what it has always done and that is entertain, inform and inspire any number of it's viewers for the most part. I shall enjoy some of the presenters more than others. There will be topics covered which may not appeal to me. I will be told things I already know and will learn much that is new.
I don't think I'll get angry about the programme content and make nasty personal remarks about the presenters. There'll be plenty of variety, I am sure.
As I told my son when he was little, be nice!!
Chill out everyone, and enjoy the gardening!!
I expect you told your son to play nicely and take turns too. Well would you not have been cross if someone came and snatched back something that he was taking his turn on? that is what has happened here and the BBC is supposed to be somewhat more adult than a child.Obviously it was not properly brought up.
I will enjoy the gardening, visiting,working and learning I just choose not to do so when something so unjust has been done.I have stacks of books and lots of clever gardening friends I will learn from them and do well without GW.
Echoing many of the posters above, I think that:
a) Monty lacks substance, and his GW Magazine columns are frankly dull
b) Carol has again been poorly treated - yet to me always seems comfortably the most expert contributor
c) I feel sorry for Toby. Though his personality doesn't come across well on tv, he appears to be carrying the can for the 'GW-Lite' debacle - which I very much doubt was his idea
d) Alys should certainly have been retained, as she brought something genuinely different
e) Joe's cheeky-chappy cockney faux-banter is absolutely not to my taste, but I can see that some may like it
f) it seems clear that a single 30 minute lowest-common-denominator programme can please no single viewer, so why hasn't the BBC recognised that?
g) there must surely be a continuing rationale for developing an existing garden AND starting a new one, as there are a lot of new houses built & sold each year. Further, as new starter-houses will presumably be typically bought by younger people, might it be worth creating an additional programme format for developing small bare-ground plots into gardens which are suitable for young families - with appropriate presenters?
Still and all, I expect that I'll bump along with New and Improved GW2011 and only the odd exasperated sigh - after all, I always have.
Has it occurred to BBC that the poor viewing figures recently are also due to terrible scheduling? Why should their one gardening programme a week be pushed aside by sport etc? If the audience is important give them the continuity they deserve.
So thank you Toby, Alice, Carol and Joe but unfortunately until you give them their own programmes for gardeners like me I won't be back.