Weeding the Web

Does the BBC's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge denigrate garden design?

Sean Murray won the Great Chelsea Garden Challenge.

Did you watch the Great Chelsea Garden Challenge? Do you think it worked well? Tuning in to catch the second half of each episode, I thought it was great fun.

Not everyone agrees, though. There have been rumblings in Garden Design world, as reported by the Mail Online a couple of days ago. It denigrates garden design, is the general grumble. Janine Pattison, award-winning designer and well known on the seminar circuit, said it trivialised garden design, gave the impression that anyone could do it and implied that it disrespected the years of study and hard work put in by professionals.

Personally I couldn't agree less, any more than I'd say the amateur Masterchef series, The Great British Sewing Bee or The Great British Bake Off take away from professional achievements. They show how difficult these things are to do to a prize-winning standard and give an appreciation of the thought and effort that goes into doing them well.

I sniff professional insecurity in the criticism. It's a common reaction - by all professions - to claim all knowledge and ability for themselves. Which is silly, as you only have to go around local art festivals (and watch TV) to know that there are innumerable very talented amateurs in many different areas of art and design.

Still, not all the Garden Design world is acting so defensively. Andrew Fisher Tomlin, Director of London College of Garden Design and RHS Judge, has said, “The new series is a great way of highlighting careers in garden design and can only lead to encouraging new people to come into the profession." He's rather pleased, of course, because competitor Paul Harris is one of his graduates.

I suspect that much of the grumbling has been activated at the thought that a space on the Main Avenue at Chelsea will be taken up by the winner's garden. Certainly, designer Roseanne Rosewarne is quoted as saying that reserving such a site for the winner is hard on the professional designers.

Fisher Tomlin added, “There have been some negative comments from parts of the profession, but most have come from designers who have never taken up the challenge of exhibiting a show garden. Generally, we have found overwhelming support for the RHS in highlighting garden design as a career and for taking a contemporary approach to getting people to train to be a garden designer.”

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Sean has produced. He's completely self-taught but obviously talented. A self-taught flower arranger, he recently passed his NAFAS (National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies) demonstrators test.  His garden will be on the spot where Alan Titchmarsh had his last year (not a huge space) and, because he's briefed by the RHS and it is, therefore, an RHS garden, no, it won't be part of the official judging process.

That's a shame. It wouldn't have been ethical to pass judgement on their own garden, and perhaps that's just as well for an amateur's blood pressure. But you can't help thinking that it would always have been considered too dangerous or too tactless to include it.

For related thoughts on professional v. amateur designers: Tim Richardson's discussion on Thinkingardens

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.

The Big Allotment Challenge - what would you have done?

So, it's over. The Big Allotment Challenge, the programme that, according to editor of Horticulture Week, Matthew Appleby, the industry hoped would create a "boom time" for gardening in the manner of Ground Force. It ain't going to happen, is it?

If you're like me, you really wanted - expected - to like this programme. So I felt considerable pain two weeks ago when I turned to Husband and admitted, "This is really boring, isn't it?" Last week, it fell second choice to a Rockford Files episode on DVD, and on Tuesday to The Odd Couple. (For a couple of media opinions see The Guardian and their gardening blog.)

But I watched last night's final with an analytical eye. It was meant to be another Bake-Off - what happened?  Here's my take. I'd love to hear your opinion.

Why the Great British Bake-Off works and The Big Allotment Challenge Doesn't

• GBBO has a great team of judges with expertise in the same subject. BAC lacks the spark of disagreement between experts.
• Individuals competing. Unexpectedly, teams seemed to dilute impact, rather than double it. GBBO builds relationships between presenters and competitors. BAC faces teams of two, which are a subtly more self-contained unit.
• GBBO is active at every stage of development. It makes you feel that you might just have a go at that choux pastry, now that you've seen it made and had it explained. BAC makes very passive watching; I'd be surprised if any non-gardening viewers (were there any by the end?) felt the urge to leap outside and stick seeds in the ground at any time in the last six weeks.
• Time jeopardy. The GBBO contestants always seem to be up against the clock, whether that's clever editing or not. The BAC can't replicate this - the best it seemed to manage was an over-ripe melon a week in advance. Result? Disappointment, not tension.
• Repetition. Whereas GBBO manages to ring the changes each week for those interested in baking, BAC presented just more of the same, even for gardeners. Why the fascination with pickles? And aren't there other things to do with flowers than arrange them?

Will The Big Allotment Challenge return? Possibly, but surely with a different format. Here are my ideas on making it more interesting:

1. Don't get rid of contestants - make it a competition based on points built up during the series (actually this isn't my idea. I found it on another blog but I've forgotten which. If it's yours, let me know and I'll put in a link.)
2. Sell flowers. Send the competitors to a local market with bunches they've grown and see who makes the most money.
3. Have a Generation Game-type challenge. Jonathan Moseley could create something tricky and competitors have to copy it in two minutes.
4. Grow to show a modern variety and a heritage variety of a certain veg. The comparison should be educational.
5. Build a support for climbing peas in half an hour, and let's see if it stands up to their weight during the season.
6. Grow the topping for your own pizza - show imagination. Honestly, if I'd seen Thane Prince pop a teaspoon of mush in her chops one more time, I think I'd have squealed.

I could go on (note to producers: Feel free to ask) but I bet you can think of a few challenges yourself. What would you like to see on The Great Allotment Challenge? Or did you like it just as it was?

 And here's another review from Two Thirsty Gardeners: Sarah Coomer's Guest Review: The Big Allotment Challenge.

Britain's Best Gardens - call for entrants

The calls for gardening contestants are coming thick and fast. After the shout-out for another series of The Big Allotment Challenge (which began last Tuesday on BBC2), here's one that's less veg-centred, but holds out the carrot of meeting the delectable AT.  

 

Mending fences - a shortage of fence panels makes me reassess our world

Recent news that fence panels are in short supply was no news to me. We're still staring through gaps where our larch lap used to stand.

Nigel Willmington of Farm Fencing told us that a wet summer in Scandinavia last year had meant that much wood wasn't harvested. Combine that with this winter's belligerant bluster and the result has been, it seems, a surge in stolen fence panels and "black market" prices.  On trade network Landscape Juice, the question Fence Panel Shortage. Anyone suffering? elicited tales from landscapers of having to pay retail prices and being told that their normal supplier wouldn't have anything until...August!

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, we've had ample time to adjust to the garden's (in the wartime expression) "more open than usual" status. On one side, our neighbour's fence has pretty much disappeared. The view from the kitchen has doubled to include their lawn, while through the gap in our fence on the opposite side you see a rather attractive flowering climber scrambling across an old apple tree.

Suddenly we have vistas, spaciousness, the pleasure of next-door's ceonothus. And my proposition? Fences should go, especially tall ones.

Imagine it from a gardening point of view :

1. No fences to blow down on recently planted raspberries (yes, it happened).
2. No maintenance and cost.
3. No solid shadow prematurely cutting half the garden off from the sun mid-afternoon because next door has put in the maximum height allowed.
4. Free passage of wildlife (and maybe I'd get a slice of the services of the hedgehog that lives two doors away).

Imagine it from a social perspective:

1. If you needed to talk to your neighbour, you could casually engaging them in conversation over a bit of weeding. No having to ring their doorbell or pop your head over a tall fence - which both feel far more intrusive.
2. You'd actually see your neighbour. So few people spend much time out front of their houses these days that a sense of community is being lost.
3. It would discourage that false sense of isolation and the entitlement that some people seem to feel about what they do in their garden.  I'm pretty sure that the neighbours three doors away would think twice about their children's incessant shouting if they could see heads turning in the gardens around them.

And there would be the knock-on effect for wildlife. Given the desire not to give your neighbour an uninterrupted eyeful of your legs bronzing on the sunlounger, you'd probably put in a few shrubs, maybe a couple of trees. No fences would mean more planting, giving some balance to the proliferation of hard landscaping that's dominated garden design in recent years.

Are you convinced yet?

Probably not, because, whatever you might be thinking, I'm not an idiot. Three good reasons exist for barriers between back gardens: thieves, dogs and children. (Next door's toddlers are the reason for the Heath Robinson barrier in the picture.)

So I'll modify my proposition. Fences around back gardens can be up to six feet high. I think the maximum should be four.

Are you groaning? I'm not saying it would be easy to begin with. Human instinct seems to be to hide. Given money and opportunity, we put up big gates and tall fences. But just because we want something, should we have it?

You're probably picturing me as the neighbour from hell - the one who chats incessantly every time you venture outside. Not at all. I have no more wish to do this than most people, and seeing people over the fence when you're not in mood can actually put you off going out. But, the point is, we should and would get over it. Children hide when they don't want to be seen. Adults should be able to say, "Hi, lovely morning," and get on with their tasks.

Of course, I'm not the first person to think this. As briefly mentioned last night in the BBC's new series Everyday Eden: A Potted History of the Suburban Garden, social reformer Henrietta Barnett laid down regulations for Hampstead Garden Suburb which included low hedge heights, partly so that people would be encouraged to talk to each other.

I think she was right. Lower the height of fences, and, I suggest, it would change the atmosphere of an entire neighbourhood.

Down with fences!

The Big Allotment Challenge seeks contestants - are you brave enough?

Last year, a flurry of excitement greeted the news that a Great British Bake-Off take-off would appear this year, centred on growing veg.

Well, with a series queued up for spring 2014, I can report the engine is revving for another series. Davinia Richardson, of Silver River Productions has been in touch to ask for help in their search for contestants.

Do you fancy a go? 

If so, you'll be given a patch in a walled garden in Oxfordshire and, over several months, plan, sow and grow your vegetables and flowers (the seeds are provided). Every week you'll visit your allotment and make sure all is OK. Filming starts when the growing gets going. Contestants will face challenges that test their creativity and culinary skills - jam-making and flower-arranging are mentioned - or they may, for example, have to produce their three best carrots to stay in the game.

The six-week series, fronted by Fern Britton features Jim Buttress, RHS judge (pictured, and tipped, according to the Daily Mail, as "the Paul Hollywood" of the series), floral designer Jonathan Moseley, and cookery writer Thane Prince. Each episode will, says the BBC, "reflect the growing season and what's ripe for picking at the time" and in each episode one team will "hang up their gardening gloves" and leave.

 

And, of course, there's a book. According to The Bookseller,  The Patch: The Big Allotment Challenge, with A-Z of easy veg, fruit and flowers, as well as instructions for making jam, preserves and easy flower arrangements) is due for publication this April.

One of the scarier aspects, to me, is that they're currently looking for individuals (though all the talk is of teams and Davinia explained there is space on the application form to say who you'd like to bring with you if the opportunity arises). 

I'm certainly not the only one who can see pitfalls looming large as sinkholes. Sue Garrett's post at Green Lane Allotments has gathered a chorus of experienced gardeners who admit to being too fearful to take part. 

But we're all definitely looking forward to watching. Horticulture holds its breath. Editor of Horticulture Week, Matthew Appleby has been quoted as saying that the industry is hoping this will create a "boom time" for gardening in the manner of the industry-venerated Ground Force.

Complete novices need not apply. Everyone must be an amateur grower, says Davinia, but they do need to know what they're doing. (Which makes the ad's reference to a "window box" a bit whimsical.) If you have any questions, then Davinia is happy to help. Give her a ring on 0207 907 3401. Deadline for applications is 12pm, 13th March.

So, do you fancy being the next Ruby Tandoh? (She now writes regularly in The Guardian.) Is it going to be you? Oh, go on, aim for stardom and apply.

NB More comment can be found over at Garden Clickers.

 

Christine Walkden - Gardeners' World material

When I posted about HF Holidays' Garden Tours last week, I mentioned Christine Walkden — gardener, author, lecturer and presenter — who leads a couple of the HF Holidays Garden Tours this year.

Christine’s a busy woman and you can catch up with her activities on her website, where there are details of her courses at Writtle College, Chelmsford, Essex, (last year she received a Gold Award from the Association of Colleges for Further Education) her Evening with Christine Walkden theatre tours around Britain, and TV and radio appearances.

The Eden Project

The Eden Project, Cornwall, grasped technology with both hands earlier this year and took its own channel, Eden Project TV on myCornwall.tv, which aims to unite all things Cornish on the internet, using video and social media.

Five-minute programmes are regularly added, featuring events at Eden, local designers, seasonal gardening ideas and showing what’s blooming and fruiting with the help of Eden’s horticulturalist Catherine Cutler. CEO and co-founder Tim Smit, champion of sustainability and eco-campaigns, rants monthly in What’s Eating Tim Smit?

Other films make it on to the Eden Project blog, where a bit of lateral thinking has the Plant Records Manager, Chris Bisson, recommending a favourite plant “record” each Friday. So far we’ve had The Who’s Pictures of Lily and, in festive fun this week alt rock group Weezer's Buddy Holly (groan. But a must for fans of Happy Days).

Eden’s very busy this month with Christmas workshops, Cornish choirs, skating and curling (featured on West Country Tonight), late openings and a display of Christmas trees. Get a flavour in the Eden Project's Time for Gifts Video.

Jeremy Clarkson's gardening advice

What is Jeremy Clarkson’s weeding implement of choice?

Have a gardening giggle from Boomclips.

Funny videos

Gardening Down Under

BBC Gardener’s World comes in for a lot of stick these days. The problem is that there really isn’t much else on TV. Unlike the internet, where there’s a complete smorgasboard of gardening radio and TV.

Want to visit an Australian garden? Or wondering if gardening would be quite the same if you moved to Oz?