A question to the Monty Don knockers. Does your TV have a button on it like
the one on my TV? I use it to kill the programmes where they are either
watching or talking about 22 men kicking a bag of wind about

Mike





"Jake" wrote in message ...

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 09:38:05 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

It seems as if a lot of the moans about Monty come from the older
members who have been watching GW for many years some from Percy
Throwers days, that means that we have seen the same info delivered in
many ways by a number of presenters, and we all have our favourite from
the past.

But have we seen the same info? I don't remember the likes of Percy
Thrower or Clay Jones taking off their shirts and ties (and jackets
and waistcoats sometimes) and digging out ponds and streams.

And let's not forget that Saint Geoff was promoting organic, chemical
free gardening before it became the "in thing". He introduced me to
coir and, as a result, I've not bought a bag of peat since, only the
occasional peat-containing compost.

And don't forget "hypa-tufa" as he called it - making your own
limestone-like rockery stone instead of stripping that out from
quarries.

The point was that he did not preach at us, he talked almost with us.
And Barnsdale developed with the programme (as others have said) and
we got things from scratch, not a continuum of Geoff's own garden. To
some extent, though nowhere near as much, Alan T developed his garden
a bit but I'll agree he was no Geoff (as he said himself).

I'll skip over Monty's first incarnation which, IIRC, was a ratings
disaster for the programme (though glad stint ended I was sorry about
the cause). Toby B's stint was a disaster not necessarily because of
the presenters but because of the format adopted. He had no chance.
But my personal jury is still out as to whether the baby was thrown
out with the bath water.

A lot of the info is there for the newer gardeners, and whilst he
doesn't talk about using peat and chemicals I find his presentation good.

The info is there if the newer gardener wants to plant only the plants
he has, to have a "jewel garden" and has inherited a patch with lots
of trees, miles of hedges and so on. Most newer gardeneners with small
suburban gardens will never be able to plant hundreds of bulbs along a
tree shaded garden path. It is also presumptuous to assume that
gardeners will always have a potting shed and greenhouse.

We must agree to differ on his presentational style which I compare
with a bad priest's overlong Sunday sermon.

And by refusing to even mention peat and chemicals, indeed by
misinforming ("the only way to kill lily beetle....") he loses a great
opportunity to educate newer gardeners about how, if they must use
chemicals, to use them safely, about the pros and cons of peat use. So
the newer gardener who has faced an invasion of lily beetle will
notice a display of Provado on the shelf, see it kills lily beetle and
will probably not bother to read the small print on the back and so
spray at midday when the bees are flying rather than at dusk when the
newer gardeners probably want to watch TV, not garden!

For me, every presenter from Percy to Toby has, in some way, added to
the programme, added to my knowledge and moved forward. Monty has
taken away and moved backward.


--
Cheers, Jake
=======================================
URGling from the east end of Swansea Bay in between
yanking up ever-appearing clumps of Himalayan balsam.