Weeding the Web

Is The Beechgrove Garden really better than Gardeners' World?

Something definitely ails a TV programme if you're irritated before it even begins. Even more so, something is right when you eagerly anticipate a forthcoming episode.

Together, that's a fair summary of how I've been approaching the BBC's Gardeners' World and BBC Scotland's The Beechgrove Garden. So much so that I haven't watched GW for some time. Was I, I asked myself recently, being fair?

Well, both programmes are shown as repeats on Sunday morning, so a couple of weeks ago I recorded them to see what, if any, was the difference. Let's start with a rundown of the subjects covered in both programmes:

Beechgrove Garden	Item presented by	Gardeners’ World	Item presented by
Thugs Corner: Look at how bed of garden thugs is fighting it out Mention of new addition Himalayan Lilac Mulching in summer/winter	Jim McColl, Chris Beardshaw	Plants in pots fading, adding potash to keep going	Monty Don
Introduction to Dunlop, where community garden is being created	George Anderson	Intro – preview with pics and clips of what’s to come
Comparison of Jim McColl’s melons, grown in cold frame, and Chris Beardshaw’s, grown on a hotbed	Jim and Chris, separately	August is a time of ecstasy. Don’t forget to sit down and enjoy your garden Look at accidental grouping of canna, weeping pear and clematis. Wow.	Monty Don
Visit to the community garden in Dunlop: What people are doing Tips on rejuvenating apple trees Gooseberry sawfly Bug hotels Pallet gardens	Carole Baxter	Start to plan for next year Vita Sackville-West’s tip on cutting a flower and carrying round garden to find best site for it.	Monty Don
Visit to the veg garden Chard bolting and possibly why Cauliflower Onions Peas – comparison of growth with added rhizobium and without. And of different supports.	Jim McColl	Visit to Coleton Fishacre History of garden and d’Oyly Carte family Chat with head gardener	Rachel de Thame
Look at how trained fruit doing in the mini-orchard Feeding a sickly peach	Chris Beardshaw	Creating micro-climate with hedges Hedge trimming fresh growth now , winter trim the old wood Creating window in hedge for vista	Monty Don
Another look at the community garden: Bog garden. Different areas of garden. Adding thyme to cracks in crazy paving Advice on dividing hostas/herbaceous plants in October	Carole Baxter	Carol Klein returns to a garden she designed Look at wallflowers Taking cuttings – demo Difference between annual and perennial weeds Compost bin needs to be on soil	Carol Klein
Seasonal advice: Water camellias and rhodos to keep buds Water compost bins in dry weather Water sweetcorn, aid pollination	Jim McColl and Chris Beardshaw	Jobs this weekend Potting on Nipping out tomato tops August lettuce, keep watered Keep cutting courgettes	Monty Don
Goodbye from community garden	Carole + crowd

I was surprised that both shows have approximately the same number of items. But there the resemblance stops.

First impressions? Beechgrove is an extensive garden with a team of people presenting, including the lovely, long-serving Jim McColl.  Gardeners' World is, let's face it, the Monty Don show.

No harm in that, necessarily, but a team produces more opinions and will have diverse interests. A glance of their website reveals that Beechgrove also has a team of gardeners working on the three-acre site, which probably accounts for how they manage to cover such a variety of subjects.  Every week, they introduce or revisit an experiment or three - solutions for cut flowers; the success of different dahlia varieties; different wildflower mixes; the effect of different composts.You name it...

 

Map of Beechgrove Gardens

The BBC insisted that two full-time gardeners be employed at Long Meadow, but the general impression is of having a look at whatever Monty happens to be doing on his two acres this week. 

Beechgrove presentation is snappy, each item is packed with info, tips are brief and to the point, and when they visit a garden they widen it into an opportunity to present something of relevance to viewers. Rachel de Thame's visit to Coleton Fishacre merely smugly described how easy it was to grow tender plants there and gave no explanation of how the cacti manage in the West Country wetness.

Gardeners' World did have a few things that Beechgrove didn't:

• Interludes of close-ups of unnamed flowers, backed by plinky music
• Long shots of Monty, appearing round corners or up alleys
• Preview clips that appeared again later in the show

All of which contribute to the - shall we say? - gentle pace of the programme.

And Husband, with his usual perspicacity, put his finger firmly on a major difference. "Gardeners' World," he said, "is focussed on design." And he's right - if you look at the list of items above, they nearly all have a design element, including that rather patronising period devoted to telling us to enjoy our garden.

I was left wondering who exactly Gardeners' World is for. Beechgrove bristles with interest for the hands-on gardener, covering practicalities, problems, choices gardeners might face. Gardeners' World seems constantly to be addressing the most basic novice and people with only a passing interest in getting dirt beneath their fingernails.

A simple indication of the approaches of the two programmes is that Beechgrove provides a weekly factsheet for viewers. Gardeners' World doesn't - and there really wouldn't be much to put on it.

How much of this is down to Monty's presentation? I wonder. This time last year Professor Lisa Jardine criticised the BBC for being run by humanities graduates with no understanding of science, who assumed the viewers were as ignorant as they were.

The idea presenters must "mash up the difficult stuff, and particularly science, because people are not able to understand, is a complete fallacy".

Is Gardeners' World suffering from management by non-gardeners who just don't get it? 

Of course, GW has far more viewers than Beechgrove, but, after quizzing a few fellow gardeners at Mr Fothergill's Trials Day recently, I realised that an awful lot of gardeners haven't ever watched the latter. If you're one of them, I urge you to give it a go.

Record Gardeners' World and Beechgrove on a Sunday morning and then watch Beechgrove first. I guarantee that GW's languid progress will make you wilt on the sofa and you'll be reminding yourself to set the timer for next week's Scottish instalment.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: sunny colour

I first encountered mesembryanthemum when my mother ecstatically pointed them out to me during a holiday on Jersey when I was eighteen. They don't tally with my normal style of gardening, but after my visit to Ball Colegrave I'm coming round to the idea of some self-indulgence with pots. Combine this with the fact that a local nursery was selling these half-price, £1.75 for twelve plugs at the beginning of the month, and I found them irresistible.

These are a particularly vibrant combination and I love their dedication to sunshine - wide open in full beam, but beginning to close, even while sitting in a sunny spot, at five in the afternoon.

I queried the possibility of keeping them going through the winter and the nurserywoman told me that you tend to think you're doing very well by keeping them going till February, when the short days get them and they give up the ghost. "Give it a try, though," she said encouragingly, but I know my limits. 

This is part of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, run by May Dreams Gardens. Pop over and see what else is blooming in gardens around the world.

Growing Victory in the World Wars

With all the grim stories of WW1 being told at the moment, it's a relief to come across the  Infographic below that looks at a different aspect of life during the two World Wars.

It's always difficult to crowbar a full picture into this type of artwork, so I've added a few comments at the bottom. 

I'll just balance the paragraph about the soldiers' food having gone off with something I've read recently in the fascinating book about WW1, Mud, Blood and Poppycock by military historian and ex-soldier, Gordon Corrigan.

British commanders knew that, while an army mught not exactly march on its stomach, in the Napoleonic sense, men who were hungry or whose food intake lacked the ingredients essential to good health would not fight as well as men who were well fed. A balanced diet was provided, and the administrative staff took great pains to ensure that it was delivered.

A daily ration for British soldiers (note, not French - their rations were so bad that they contributed to the French army's 1917 mutinies) included:

• 18oz fresh or frozen meat
• 16oz preserved meat
• 18oz bread
• 12oz biscuit
• 4oz bacon
• 3oz cheese
• 8oz of fresh vegetables
• 2oz dried vegetables

The preserved meat was an alternative to the fresh/frozen, the biscuit was an alternative to bread, the dried veg an alternative to fresh. Gordon Corrigan adds:

Soldiers rarely went hungry except in the most extreme circumstances, such as the chaos of First Ypres of the withdrawal of spring 1918. Soldiers did not complain about the lack of food, although they did complain about its monotony.

It's not surprising If not everything worked well; it was an unprecedented situation. I think we can be proud of the national response to the need to feed ourselves.  For more about life on the land in WW2, see my review of the recently reprinted Land Girl, A Manual for Volunteers.

Greetings cards for gardeners

Because it feels special to get a card that someone's chosen particularly with you in mind, I'm always on the look-out for cards that suit gardeners.  I've just come across the lovely range at online garden retailer Potter and Rest. 

They're designed by freelance illustrator and graphic designer Angie Spurgeon, who lives in Somerset and produces colourful, humorous cards that are bound to cheer your gardener on their way. You can find a list of stockists on her website, and more of her designs there and on Folksy.

Craft fairs are always a good place to scout for cards and a couple caught my eye at Wisley Craft Fair last Christmas.

Louise Braithwaite, who sells cards at Mad Lou Publishing Ltd, features many actual places on her fun designs. Gardening isn't a subject she concentrates on, but she has produced a card for an allotmenteer.

Louise will be holding an Open Studio from 16-24 August.

Striking a totally different artistic note is Gail Kelly of Algan Arts. Inspired by patterns in the countryside and garden, she creates linocuts with strong and simple lines.  Again, there's a list of stockists on her website, or you might be able to persuade her to send you some by post. 

  

Finally, Jo Robinson, of Ham Made, has reduced her outlines even more, to silhouettes, featuring a rabbit, a horse and a pig.

The rabbit has yet to get its teeth into gardening (possibly just as well), and her watering horse now seems to be only available as a mug, but she does offer a Mowing Pig.

If you know of any lovely cards for gardeners, let me know and I'll round them up for another post. In the meantime, you might be interested in the print-your-own cards by Helene Taylor.

 

Tree following: a new baby lilac?

A month on, and my downed lilac is turning into quite a bush.

If you dropped by last month, you'll know that some of the young shoots had turned black at the end and one of the shoots had wilted. I'm grateful for the helpful observation from Tim Havenith of Notes of Nature.

On the stem that has died back, did you notice if it had wilted first? If so, it might indicate a fungal infection blocking the vascular elements. In which case you should cut the wilted stems off and either burn them or put them in the green bin if you have one. Fingers crossed it'll be ok.

Well, the stems didn't seem to have wilted before turning black, so I breathed a sigh of relief at that, but kept a close eye in case of developments.

New shoots have been growing fresh and strong.

Some of the leaves on the older shoots appear to be suffering some sort of virus attack, but it's not widespread.

The browning edges are causing me some concern, though. Again, these are on the tallest shoot. On the other hand, I know I've been taken by surprise by this lilac before, when I've wondered why leaves are looking manky and realised that it's merely the onset of autumn. Bit early, I know, but everything seems to be several weeks advanced this year.  On the other hand, these do look rather wilted too. Perhaps Tim's right about a vascular problem?

Finally, what of the babies - the cuttings I took last month?  Well, the smaller one sat there and did nothing and began to look sorry for itself. That's gone, I'm afraid. But the other shows distinct signs of possible success, with a new leaf beginning to unfurl.

This is part of Lucy's Tree Following meme at Loose and Leafy. Why not pop over and see what's happening to trees around the world?

Gardening equipment for free - a Freecycle celebration

You know when something lovely happens that's completely unexpected?  Well, Monday was that day for me. And if you don't already keep an eye on your local Freecycle group, may I encourage you to sign up right now?

 

Oak plant labels, 20 cms long. Approx cost per bundle normally £4.50-£5.00

Freecycle - and I guess there are still some people who don't know this - lets you offer something you don't want to other members of the community, and to ask for something that someone else is getting rid of.

You have to be relaxed about the whole thing, because there's something of a lottery about it. I've come to the conclusion that most offerers like requesters to give a reason why they'd like the item, which means you can end up sending quite a supplicatory email. Some offerers like to leave a couple of days after posting so that as many people as possible can see what's on offer. Some just give it to the first reply. Quite often something I'm interested in has already gone.

Here - hurrah! - the stars conjoined. The post had just gone up; I explained that I blog and write articles, and that oak labels would look so much better in photographs than my cracked white plastic ones which seem to diminish in number with astonishing rapidity (where do they go?).

An hour later I was collecting the labels from a charming woman who was helping to clear clutter from her mother's house. And I am now the proud owner of an extraordinary number of unused, pristine oak plant labels.

To be an honourable member of a Freecycle group you have to offer things too and not just grab at what's there, but I've noticed that anything to do with gardening, surplus fruit, jam-making and bottling goes very quickly. (I've even been cheerfully relieved of a pile of old breezeblocks and roof tiles by someone who wanted to layout his allotment.)

So, while I rub my hands in a disgusting display of glee at this delightful hoard, can I encourage you to sign up to your local group?

And if you belong to anything similar to Freecycle, I'd love to hear what it is.