On 02/09/2013 07:43, Derek wrote:
On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:06:06 +0100, Spider wrote:


I confess I loved Toby Buckland's handling of GW and wish
the BBC had left him at the helm to work in his own way.


I agree, but he did get a lot of stick from this newsgroup, I still
watch GW, love Beechcroft, and this summer finally got to visit
'Barnsdale' a great day out, (except for the Garden Center that is on
site, which was poor)

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.
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.
As far as chemicals are concerned it's easy to recommend something, but
"Our friends" in Europe are probably going to remove it in the next few
months.

On 02/09/2013 07:43, Derek wrote:
On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:06:06 +0100, wrote:


I confess I loved Toby Buckland's handling of GW and wish
the BBC had left him at the helm to work in his own way.


I agree, but he did get a lot of stick from this newsgroup, I still
watch GW, love Beechcroft, and this summer finally got to visit
'Barnsdale' a great day out, (except for the Garden Center that is on
site, which was poor)



Oh, I'm very disappointed to hear about Barnsdale's garden centre. I
would love to visit it some day and I'd rather hoped the gc would be
brilliant. Perhaps it will improve following customer feedback.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On 02/09/2013 09:38, David Hill wrote:
On 02/09/2013 07:43, Derek wrote:
On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:06:06 +0100, Spider wrote:


I confess I loved Toby Buckland's handling of GW and wish
the BBC had left him at the helm to work in his own way.


I agree, but he did get a lot of stick from this newsgroup, I still
watch GW, love Beechcroft, and this summer finally got to visit
'Barnsdale' a great day out, (except for the Garden Center that is on
site, which was poor)

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.
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.
As far as chemicals are concerned it's easy to recommend something, but
"Our friends" in Europe are probably going to remove it in the next few
months.





Thankfully, although Monty doesn't recommend chemicals, we've all got
our own gardeners' world here in urg, where we can not only be given an
appropriate chemical's name but, very often, information about how
effective it is and tips about better application based on a real
gardener's use of it and not the sales pitch on the packaging.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

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.

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:15:21 +0100, Spider wrote:

Oh, I'm very disappointed to hear about Barnsdale's garden centre. I
would love to visit it some day and I'd rather hoped the gc would be
brilliant. Perhaps it will improve following customer feedback.

I went with the intention of buying a plant (anything!) as a souvenir
and came out without anything, and saw many others do the same.
Barnsdale, was well worth the visit, a very full day, was one of the
first in, and left as they were closing for the day.

On 02/09/2013 15:33, Martin wrote:
On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 14:15:12 +0100, Jake
wrote:


+1


Very -1

Trouble is, usenet is much more suited to knockers than praisers. It is
notorious for it IYSWIM

On 03/09/2013 13:06, Jake wrote:
On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 11:38:51 +0100, News
wrote:



Very -1

Trouble is, usenet is much more suited to knockers than praisers. It is
notorious for it IYSWIM

As you totally disagree with me, I take it that you are, in fact,
knocking every GW presenter in history except Monty, whom you are
praising. And you will also be happy to see the decline of bees
because newer gardeners shoot chemicals over everything when the bees
are flying? Indeed, even older gardeners: I've heard "Oh, I never read
instructions. If it's on sale it's ok, innit!"


Quite where you leap to those ridiculous conclusions from, I really
don't know. I disagree with your views of Monty. Full stop. That
doesn't necessarily mean that I subscribe to everything he says, so
don't try and draw any conclusions about the way I feel beyond that.

Whilst the original remark was somewhat tongue in cheek and a repository
for a pun, I believe that in general, people are more likely to express
feelings of dislike on usenet than of like. In the same way that people
in general will more often criticise a company when it cocks up than
they will praise it when it does something right. YMMV.

--
regards
andy

"News" wrote in message ...

On 03/09/2013 13:06, Jake wrote:
On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 11:38:51 +0100, News
wrote:



Very -1

Trouble is, usenet is much more suited to knockers than praisers. It is
notorious for it IYSWIM

As you totally disagree with me, I take it that you are, in fact,
knocking every GW presenter in history except Monty, whom you are
praising. And you will also be happy to see the decline of bees
because newer gardeners shoot chemicals over everything when the bees
are flying? Indeed, even older gardeners: I've heard "Oh, I never read
instructions. If it's on sale it's ok, innit!"


Quite where you leap to those ridiculous conclusions from, I really
don't know. I disagree with your views of Monty. Full stop. That
doesn't necessarily mean that I subscribe to everything he says, so
don't try and draw any conclusions about the way I feel beyond that.

Whilst the original remark was somewhat tongue in cheek and a repository
for a pun, I believe that in general, people are more likely to express
feelings of dislike on usenet than of like. In the same way that people
in general will more often criticise a company when it cocks up than
they will praise it when it does something right. YMMV.

--
regards
andy

On 03/09/2013 07:07, Derek wrote:
On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:15:21 +0100, Spider wrote:

Oh, I'm very disappointed to hear about Barnsdale's garden centre. I
would love to visit it some day and I'd rather hoped the gc would be
brilliant. Perhaps it will improve following customer feedback.

I went with the intention of buying a plant (anything!) as a souvenir
and came out without anything, and saw many others do the same.
Barnsdale, was well worth the visit, a very full day, was one of the
first in, and left as they were closing for the day.





Thanks for adding that. It makes a visit sound very promising indeed.
I'll just not have to plan any purchases.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay