He's certainly pulling no punches in Horticulture Week and without
naming the programmes itself, has commented on his horror at some of
the advice given and the plants shown, plus a very expensive new
greenhouse when there was one in situ already. I think it would be
fair to say that he's unimpressed and has just about reached the end of
his professional rope with the standard currently prevailing. His
advice for watching is turn the sound down. Unfortunately, nobody
seems prepared to listen to dissatisfied gardeners and judging from
this group alone, there are quite a few about. I believe overall
viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5 million.

I really do like Mr Don's 'big' programmes, presenting gardens in
different parts of the world and I think he does those very well, but
I'm afraid GW has lost all interest for us. We do turn it on most weeks
but usually, one or both of us fall asleep before it's over. I do wish
they'd get someone like Roy Lancaster onto the presenting - so much
knowledge, talent, abillity and it's not reaching enough people new to
gardening. And of course, he's not the only one.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
says...

Unfortunately, nobody
seems prepared to listen to dissatisfied gardeners and judging from
this group alone, there are quite a few about. I believe overall
viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5 million.

Which is a failry respectable number for a hobby program; sports
programs are watched by under 3 million. It's also quite a respectable
audience compared with the rest of what's on offer

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30

(scroll down )

Janet.

On 2013-09-13 18:40:47 +0100, Janet said:

In article ,
says...

Unfortunately, nobody
seems prepared to listen to dissatisfied gardeners and judging from
this group alone, there are quite a few about. I believe overall
viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5 million.

Which is a failry respectable number for a hobby program; sports
programs are watched by under 3 million. It's also quite a respectable
audience compared with the rest of what's on offer

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30

(scroll down )

Janet.

I don't think it's intended to be a hobby programme, as such. It's
surely supposed to be teaching people about many aspects of gardening
and growing their own food is just one. Without going into it, I would
think the number of people with gardens or allotments (mainly because
couples get involved) would outweigh the number of people who watch
football, tennis or cricket on tv, except when it comes to e.g.
Wimbledon finals. Those viewing figures don't strike me as particularly
high when you read that even repeats of Doc Martin get 4 million while
the highest number for one episode was over 10 million. I know they're
entirely different types of programme but it gives some indication of
how many people will watch something they enjoy that engages their
interest, even if they've seen it before. I suppose we would need to
know if the Beeb is happy with those figures or whether they'll pull
the plug altogether if they get much lower. And I think it's telling
that over comparatively few years there have been several attempts to
make GW work and pull in more people. Imo, at present the focus is
much too narrow for getting people new to gardening interested in
learning from the programme. That's just my view but I doubt if it's
mine alone.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 2013-09-14 16:58:39 +0100, Jake said:

On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 14:35:15 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


That's just my view but I doubt if it's mine alone.

There is a very interesting double page spread in the 21 September
edition of AG on this subject.

I had a small exchange with Monty (and others) on Twitter recently in
which he rounded the GW audience down to 2,000,000 and mentioned the
estimated 9,000,000 gardeners who don't watch GW. No-one has answered
the question "Why don't they watch ..." yet.

Whilst I would run 2 miles to avoid David Domoney, in the AG article
he does make an interesting point that gardening programmes
concentrate too much on the labour aspect of gardening rather than the
enjoyment you can get out of your garden.

OTOH, this is a debate we've had so many times and I think it's fair
to say that opinions in the group - as elsewhere - tend to be
polarised a bit. The format of programmes seems to take a very much
secondary place to liking/disliking the presenter(s). I am certainly
guilty of that, to a point. But in reality the format of programmes
does matter more.

Toby Buckland's stint on GW co-incided with a format change that
alienated a lot of people. Did Toby have any significant input into
that change? We don't actually know but he's carried the can for it.
That audience figures have improved since the format was ditched is to
be expected but the conclusion that people prefer Monty to Toby has no
foundation.

And the AG article foretells what we're going the get in 2014. I'll
leave it to you to read the article and will simply mention that Fern
Britton will present one new show!

Oh god save us all! What is WRONG with the people that commission these
programmes?!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 15/09/2013 09:38, Martin wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 23:35:02 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 2013-09-14 16:58:39 +0100, Jake said:
snip

And the AG article foretells what we're going the get in 2014. I'll
leave it to you to read the article and will simply mention that Fern
Britton will present one new show!

Oh god save us all! What is WRONG with the people that commission these
programmes?!

They thought Fern was a nice name for a presenter of a gardening
programme.

Give the poor girl a chance, she hasn't even done one programme yet and
she is being slated.
She is the presenter not an expert gardener, her job should be to link
the different segments.

On 2013-09-15 09:48:02 +0100, David Hill said:

On 15/09/2013 09:38, Martin wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 23:35:02 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 2013-09-14 16:58:39 +0100, Jake said:
snip

And the AG article foretells what we're going the get in 2014. I'll
leave it to you to read the article and will simply mention that Fern
Britton will present one new show!

Oh god save us all! What is WRONG with the people that commission these
programmes?!

They thought Fern was a nice name for a presenter of a gardening
programme.

Give the poor girl a chance, she hasn't even done one programme yet and
she is being slated.
She is the presenter not an expert gardener, her job should be to link
the different segments.

There's no intention of slating her at all, truly. I just don't get the
idea/see the need to dress that programme up even more. Why not just
have a straightforward gardening programme? Why add another person into
the mix? That's going to start down the Countryfile route where the
subject is quite interesting up to the point where the presenter has a
go at whatever-it-is the expert is doing. Then it just becomes bogus
and celeb slanted. It's starting a move back to the days of a garden
shed with sofas in it and all of them sitting around joshing each other
and drinking coffee, while look excruciatingly uncomfortable at having
to do it. I will be amazed if it doesn't slide into Fern having a go at
planting potatoes with Monty, or pruning a rose with Carol. I'll be
delighted to be wrong, too!

We were talking about GW this morning at breakfast and while it's nice
to hear the suggestion that surplus apples are made into juice, why did
Monty have to actually make the juice and drink it onscreen etc. Not
his idea, probably, he, too, has to follow direction but it's not a
cookery programme.

I'm just not sure what it is any more. There's little discussion about
new plants or the people that grow them and sell them and while I know
we have a vested interest, that's as much a part of teaching about
gardening as anything else. Horticulturists all over UK are asking
people to support small nurseries because they don't just sell a
bog-standard range of imported plants, so why no programmes on that
subject? These places are going out of business at a rate of knots,
especially the smallest ones, how is it they get no support from a
flagship gardening programme that involves - or should - British
horticulture and what it's founded on.

GW is now a vehicle for the promotion of organic gardening and no
alternatives, which is not right or fair because it's imposing a narrow
view on *everyone*. It's shown in a large garden with no evidence of
any form of employed helpers, other than the large array of tools on
the wall and in itself, that is misleading. I really do find it very
disheartening because newcomers, especially, are NOT being taught that
there are many ways of gardening. What they're learning is - mainly -
what one person wants to do in his garden, at his own insistence,
almost certainly with outside help that is never acknowledged. I am
sure Mr Don is a dedicated gardener but he writes, he makes programmes,
he travels and that garden cannot be kept in that way without someone
helping him. Why not explain that to people who might be somewhat
daunted at this vision of perfection which they, with a 5 days a week
job, or poor health, or other occupations, cannot hope to attain
unaided.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

"Sacha" wrote

He's certainly pulling no punches in Horticulture Week and without naming
the programmes itself, has commented on his horror at some of the advice
given and the plants shown, plus a very expensive new greenhouse when there
was one in situ already. I think it would be fair to say that he's
unimpressed and has just about reached the end of his professional rope
with the standard currently prevailing. His advice for watching is turn
the sound down. Unfortunately, nobody seems prepared to listen to
dissatisfied gardeners and judging from this group alone, there are quite a
few about. I believe overall viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5
million.

I really do like Mr Don's 'big' programmes, presenting gardens in different
parts of the world and I think he does those very well, but I'm afraid GW
has lost all interest for us. We do turn it on most weeks but usually, one
or both of us fall asleep before it's over. I do wish they'd get someone
like Roy Lancaster onto the presenting - so much knowledge, talent,
abillity and it's not reaching enough people new to gardening. And of
course, he's not the only one.

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared to be
planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was probably the
reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position which I find
strange.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 2013-09-15 16:39:20 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote

He's certainly pulling no punches in Horticulture Week and without
naming the programmes itself, has commented on his horror at some of
the advice given and the plants shown, plus a very expensive new
greenhouse when there was one in situ already. I think it would be
fair to say that he's unimpressed and has just about reached the end of
his professional rope with the standard currently prevailing. His
advice for watching is turn the sound down. Unfortunately, nobody
seems prepared to listen to dissatisfied gardeners and judging from
this group alone, there are quite a few about. I believe overall
viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5 million.

I really do like Mr Don's 'big' programmes, presenting gardens in
different parts of the world and I think he does those very well, but
I'm afraid GW has lost all interest for us. We do turn it on most weeks
but usually, one or both of us fall asleep before it's over. I do wish
they'd get someone like Roy Lancaster onto the presenting - so much
knowledge, talent, abillity and it's not reaching enough people new to
gardening. And of course, he's not the only one.

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared
to be planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was
probably the reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position
which I find strange.

A week or two back he was planting shuttlecock ferns beneath pleached
trees. Deep shade, maybe, but dry position? Possibly not, or not
without a great deal of follow-up attention. The devil is in the detail.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Sun, 15 Sep 2013 22:23:02 +0100, Sacha
wrote:
On 2013-09-15 16:39:20 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared
to be planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was
probably the reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position
which I find strange.

A week or two back he was planting shuttlecock ferns beneath pleached
trees. Deep shade, maybe, but dry position? Possibly not, or not
without a great deal of follow-up attention. The devil is in the detail.

On Friday he said that the problem of having plants in a greenhouse
where some need low humidity and the others need high humidity can be
solved using a piece of bubble wrap. Exactly what do you do with the
piece of bubble wrap?

Now, now, there. That's the sort of information that Cameron is
trying to censor.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Sun, 15 Sep 2013 16:39:20 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared to be
planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was probably the
reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position which I find
strange.

I am surprised that it crops at all! Still, you can eat the stems
like sugar cane if you time it right.

His information on how to tell if sweet corn is ready to be picked was
a load of cobblers too. Naively on Friday afternoon SWMBO picked sweet
corn that by his definition was not ready to be picked. We ate it just
before the programme. It was perfect.

Having been brought up on the stuff, I prefer mine riper than it
gets in many British summers (like this one), and am not keen on
the 'extra sweet' varieties :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Martin wrote:

His information on how to tell if sweet corn is ready to be picked was
a load of cobblers too. Naively on Friday afternoon SWMBO picked sweet
corn that by his definition was not ready to be picked. We ate it just
before the programme. It was perfect.

Having been brought up on the stuff, I prefer mine riper than it
gets in many British summers (like this one), and am not keen on
the 'extra sweet' varieties :-(

Judging from what we ate on Friday ours was an extra sweet variety.
Maybe it would have been nauseatingly sweet if it had been left to
ripen longer.

No, it's the converse. As it ripens, it converts the sugar to
starch. The "extra sweet varieties" are bred so that they both
accumulate more sugar and convert it to starch less readily.
The trouble about the UK is that ripening slows to a stop about
now, unless we get an Indian summer, and the next stage will be
mere shrivelling or even rotting.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.