"tuin man" wrote
"Paul Corfield" wrote
can someone tell me what a real gardener is?

You for a start!

Well now, had you asked for *who* is a real gardener, then contrary to the
awful "Mr Smugmarsh" reference I would say Alan Titchmarsh is a very real
gardener.
Perhaps it's his common sense touch and the earthy logical plainness of
how he seems to be expressing a deliberate simplicity of unmysterious
presentations that might irk some eonough to seeth.
If he seems a tad too smug...folly though that may be... well he has dam
well earned the right to lean out of his trolly so we can also plainly
see, someone who has done much, so very very much for this garden
industry.

That was my reference and I stand by it. He -does- come over these days as
insufferably smug and self-centred. And no I wasn't disputing his gardening
credentials in the least. I'm well aware of how he did his time as an
apprentice and learned his craft the hands-on way from experts. I was
talking about garden prog presenting skills and for me someone like Monty
Don wins hands down every time.

When AT first took over on GW from the wonderful down-to-earth Geoff
Hamilton, he did in fact start off quite well and for about one season I
thought he'd make a decent replacement, but thereafter his manner seemed to
me to get more and more arrogant and, yes, smug!

Nowadays every time he's interviewing someone or exchanging his
excruciatingly unfunny 'jolly banter' with other presenters he manages to
turn it back every time to a comment or joke about himself. Whatever he's
done for the gardening industry is laudable but beside the point; as a tv
gardening frontman his manner simply sets my teeth on edge, that's all.

On Paul's question about the definition of a real gardener I think an
'unreal' one for me would be someone who just wants their garden to be a
pleasantly decorated or fashionable backdrop, either for a bit of outdoor
living or, if you go by recent tv progs, possibly just to improve the price
of their home.

I don't like the term but a 'real' gardener would be someone who finds
pleasure in the experience of growing and tending plants, feels soothed and
energised by getting their hands in the soil, and uses their garden (or
window box, or pots on the sill) as a place to be able to arrange them in a
way that seems pleasing. I don't believe someone needs to be hugely
experienced or knowledgeable to be in the 'real' camp. The enjoyment of
growing things and urge to learn more about them all is the important bit
imo.

--
Sue