"Sacha" wrote

He's certainly pulling no punches in Horticulture Week and without naming
the programmes itself, has commented on his horror at some of the advice
given and the plants shown, plus a very expensive new greenhouse when there
was one in situ already. I think it would be fair to say that he's
unimpressed and has just about reached the end of his professional rope
with the standard currently prevailing. His advice for watching is turn
the sound down. Unfortunately, nobody seems prepared to listen to
dissatisfied gardeners and judging from this group alone, there are quite a
few about. I believe overall viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5
million.

I really do like Mr Don's 'big' programmes, presenting gardens in different
parts of the world and I think he does those very well, but I'm afraid GW
has lost all interest for us. We do turn it on most weeks but usually, one
or both of us fall asleep before it's over. I do wish they'd get someone
like Roy Lancaster onto the presenting - so much knowledge, talent,
abillity and it's not reaching enough people new to gardening. And of
course, he's not the only one.

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared to be
planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was probably the
reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position which I find
strange.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 2013-09-15 16:39:20 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote

He's certainly pulling no punches in Horticulture Week and without
naming the programmes itself, has commented on his horror at some of
the advice given and the plants shown, plus a very expensive new
greenhouse when there was one in situ already. I think it would be
fair to say that he's unimpressed and has just about reached the end of
his professional rope with the standard currently prevailing. His
advice for watching is turn the sound down. Unfortunately, nobody
seems prepared to listen to dissatisfied gardeners and judging from
this group alone, there are quite a few about. I believe overall
viewing figures for GW are between 2 and 2.5 million.

I really do like Mr Don's 'big' programmes, presenting gardens in
different parts of the world and I think he does those very well, but
I'm afraid GW has lost all interest for us. We do turn it on most weeks
but usually, one or both of us fall asleep before it's over. I do wish
they'd get someone like Roy Lancaster onto the presenting - so much
knowledge, talent, abillity and it's not reaching enough people new to
gardening. And of course, he's not the only one.

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared
to be planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was
probably the reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position
which I find strange.

A week or two back he was planting shuttlecock ferns beneath pleached
trees. Deep shade, maybe, but dry position? Possibly not, or not
without a great deal of follow-up attention. The devil is in the detail.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Sun, 15 Sep 2013 22:23:02 +0100, Sacha
wrote:
On 2013-09-15 16:39:20 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared
to be planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was
probably the reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position
which I find strange.

A week or two back he was planting shuttlecock ferns beneath pleached
trees. Deep shade, maybe, but dry position? Possibly not, or not
without a great deal of follow-up attention. The devil is in the detail.

On Friday he said that the problem of having plants in a greenhouse
where some need low humidity and the others need high humidity can be
solved using a piece of bubble wrap. Exactly what do you do with the
piece of bubble wrap?

Now, now, there. That's the sort of information that Cameron is
trying to censor.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Sun, 15 Sep 2013 16:39:20 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

On Friday he was saying his Sweet Corn didn't do so well, it appeared to be
planted between two tall hedges not in full sun so that was probably the
reason. His greenhouse appears to be in a similar position which I find
strange.

I am surprised that it crops at all! Still, you can eat the stems
like sugar cane if you time it right.

His information on how to tell if sweet corn is ready to be picked was
a load of cobblers too. Naively on Friday afternoon SWMBO picked sweet
corn that by his definition was not ready to be picked. We ate it just
before the programme. It was perfect.

Having been brought up on the stuff, I prefer mine riper than it
gets in many British summers (like this one), and am not keen on
the 'extra sweet' varieties :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Martin wrote:

His information on how to tell if sweet corn is ready to be picked was
a load of cobblers too. Naively on Friday afternoon SWMBO picked sweet
corn that by his definition was not ready to be picked. We ate it just
before the programme. It was perfect.

Having been brought up on the stuff, I prefer mine riper than it
gets in many British summers (like this one), and am not keen on
the 'extra sweet' varieties :-(

Judging from what we ate on Friday ours was an extra sweet variety.
Maybe it would have been nauseatingly sweet if it had been left to
ripen longer.

No, it's the converse. As it ripens, it converts the sugar to
starch. The "extra sweet varieties" are bred so that they both
accumulate more sugar and convert it to starch less readily.
The trouble about the UK is that ripening slows to a stop about
now, unless we get an Indian summer, and the next stage will be
mere shrivelling or even rotting.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.