On a lighter note….Gardeners World returns tonight.

Monty and his family always had several dogs and not all big dogs. I definitely remember a dear little Jack Russel type terrier featuring in his books. You just don't see all of them on TV.

Battersea1971 Don't give up on your new plants. It's very early in the year and many of my perennials haven't shown yet and many shrubs are still just sticks. In a few weeks time and some warmth and sunshine and they could all get going.

I agree with b1zzle, Adam Frost seems far more knowledgable than Monty, he is a horticulturist and used to manage Chatsworth gardens, so knows his stuff and has a lovely gentle manner. A gardening programme should be about how to garden. Adam has a much better garden with a lawn and borders to film from, I find Monty’s really claustrophobic and a bit dank. We’re always being hived off to viewers gardens when what we need is an expert. Carol Klein, Rachel D’Thame and Francis Topham are also very knowledgable. I wish they would get together and start their own series.
Whose going to get this going first? ITV or BBC?

well due to the problems with the bilsdale aerial the gardeners world progamme was not visible and had just annoying broken speech. I could have thrown something at the screen. Was in a lot of pain and was looking so forward to watching it. However after a horrible night at least I was able to get it this morning. Hurray Hurray ! cheered my morning and have been to the hospital for more antibiotics but feeling more like myself now and have had the joy of gardeners world and gqt this afternoon and have also ordered my copy of the NGS yellow book which is hoped to be in the shop on tuesday. Life begins again - well if you must be awake at 3 am at least I can be plotting trips to as many gardens as I can manage!! Life is looking up . As soon as I can get out in this little garden I shall be putting at least a couple of pots or an edge with the blue and yellow pansies to be my little tribute to Ukraine. I love seeing all the different gardens they visit. Some will inspire me and some I dont care for but it is all great to see different ideas. It was good seeing NIigel in green, and the other dogs. well time to look at my gardeners world magazine as it looks like rain now. Happy gardening to you all

Battersea1971

Last year i moved to a new house and spent a lot of money on shrubs and plants and am sooo disaoppointed that alot dont seem to have survived the winter. I will give it another couple of months to see if there is an improvement. I was very disappointed with plants/shrubs i bought on line. Local nursery in future for me. Monty makes it look so easy.

How disappointing for you. I always like to see and feel plants that I’m buying, even on the ‘sad plant’ shelves you can tell if they’re salvageable.
Plants bought on line are often weedy specimens ( although not always) that have been stressed through packing and transporting.

I recall seeing on a past episode that Monty Don suggested planting seed potatoes deeper than usual to avoid earthing up. I cannot recall how deep he set them even though I have research all over the internet. can anyone remember this?

Last year i moved to a new house and spent a lot of money on shrubs and plants and am sooo disaoppointed that alot dont seem to have survived the winter. I will give it another couple of months to see if there is an improvement. I was very disappointed with plants/shrubs i bought on line. Local nursery in future for me. Monty makes it look so easy.

I loved the section on Camellias but some of the other bits were a bit bland. I could have done with a bit more of the cheerful things for Spring and I never even noticed the connection to Ukraine because I am not a lover of rudbeckia, whereas if he had done daffodils, hyacinth or muscari in a lovely container then I would have got it Even if there had been a reflective moment of a woodland garden with daffs/hyacinth/scillas that would have been great. I used to be glued to the programme, next week I want to see what he does about creating a bog garden as I am trying to create on in the new garden.

winterwhite

Anyone else notice the subtle Ukrainian flag? Sowing seeds of perennials, one box delphiniums one box rudbeckia, picture of a border of delphiniums with one of rudbeckia directly beneath. Left on screen for a second or two, no words spoken.
Very moving, well I thought so anyway.

He also laid his seed packets out with the pictures in the format of the Ukrainian flag.

Yes, if only. I wonder what the spring garden is like the rest of the year?

Although I've watched ~GW through the years (remember Geoff Hamilton?) I must admit I prefer Adam Frost's delivery to MD, but then that's just my personal opinion. Can't say I'm too keen on the viewers' gardens either and would appreciate maybe half an hour of good, solid gardening talk followed by the viewers' contributions so I could be selective. And oh, if only we could all have a 'Jewel Garden', a 'Spring Garden' and a 'Damp Garden' ...

Sheer bliss !

I was a bit surprised when Patti came along as I’d always seen Monty as a ‘bigger dog’ person. I haven’t really taken to her, still miss Nigel.

Love this programme. So calming, interesting and informative. Have to say I thought the twee and cute wee dog was totally out of kilter with MD image. Tin hat firmly on!

There are a lot of yellow and blue flowers at this time of year, growing from bulbs planted last autumn or previous autumns. Monty always has a display of miniature daffodils and blue irises on his table on GW, every year. I’m talking about GW, I don’t follow Twitter.

Germanshepherdsmum

There tend to be a lot of yellow and blue flowers at this time of year. I don't read anything into that. The bulbs were planted last autumn.

No you are wrong about that.

Monty tweeted his support for Ukraine with those flowers.

The seeds he sowed reflected the colours as well.

I am pleased that GW is now an hour. The videos from viewers are brilliant and I think reflect the increase of interest in gardening particularly during the first lockdown. Hurrah for something everyone can take part in, even if it’s only a window box, plants on a balcony, or house plants.

That's the best thing about gardening (apart from Monty).
In spite of the awful problems this world throws at us, Nature keeps on repeating her cycle of recreation.
Unless we interfere with that too.

Love GW - I hadn’t realised it was back on. So relaxing - it feels like a soak in a warm, bubble bath to me! Such a wonderful, therapeutic programme to watch whilst the world around us seems to be falling apart. Thank you, Monty Don and team.

We planted winter pansies and they're all blue or yellow. or white. never red or orange - they seem to come later.

When our first son was born nearly 40 years ago, DH remarked how hard it was for the florist to come up with a blue floral arrangement for a (September) boy! Now you see blue everywhere.

There tend to be a lot of yellow and blue flowers at this time of year. I don't read anything into that. The bulbs were planted last autumn.

winterwhite

Anyone else notice the subtle Ukrainian flag? Sowing seeds of perennials, one box delphiniums one box rudbeckia, picture of a border of delphiniums with one of rudbeckia directly beneath. Left on screen for a second or two, no words spoken.
Very moving, well I thought so anyway.

Yes, Monty mentioned Ukraine on his Instagram recently

My problem is that as I get more and more ancient, I have to balance time with enjoyment.

So I now tend to buy mature perennials rather than wait for them to reach their full potential when I might have shuffled off.

I’ve sown my rudbeckia this morning as Monty said. I also wasn’t aware that coffee grounds make your hydrangeas go purple, it does make sense but I hadn’t made the connection, so I’ve set aside a plant pot for the grounds too. I learn something every week.

I’ve planted my Coum and hederafolia cyclamen together. I’ll have to dig them up again. ?