On a lighter note….Gardeners World returns tonight.

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 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?

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.

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

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?

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.

Sorry to disagree, eagleswings but are you suggesting Monty Don doesn't know his stuff? Since when has GW not been about how to garden?

Carol Klein, one of the most successful gardeners, journalist and Chelsea gold medal winner is a holder of the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour and yet has no formal horticultural qualifications.

I like Adam Frost and his garden is always a pleasure to look at because it's completely different from Longmeadow. I have a hunch he is being gradually set up as Monty Don's successor.

The viewers' contributions are just a few minutes long and as other experts (co presenters) are always included in each episode I really don't agree that we're being 'hived off'

The season is a long one so we will have months ahead of us to visit stunning gardens and listen to the advice of other experts.

BTW. Did you mean Frances Tophill?

Well, from comments above it’s good to remember that you can’t please all of the people all of the time! If Monty retires I would choose Adam as a replacement but until then Monty is a brilliant presenter and obviously his garden is more varied than Adam’s because he has been there for some years. They both have their individual strengths.

I like Gardener's World but I wish they would focus more on the everyday problems of the ordinary gardener like for example where to plant, soil types for plants, pests and diseases and also how to lay out a border. In other words more general stuff. This week a woman was talking about growing cyclamen from seed which would probably take about 5 years! I like looking at other peoples gardens and also life on the allotment. A thoroughly enjoyable watch.

Perhaps you should buy the magazine - it has loads of information for novices and seasoned gardeners alike and a Q&A section which regularly features pests.

I love GW and am happy with all the contributors. Some weeks are more interesting than others, but that’s inevitable when they’re covering so many different areas of gardening. I loved last nights episode, especially the green garden with Adam and the garden in the middle of a field and it’s lovely happy gardener, think his name is Andrew.
Not mad about the lady who gardens with her feet but applaud her efforts.

Was lovely seeing it again. Just what we need.

Fashionista1

I like Gardener's World but I wish they would focus more on the everyday problems of the ordinary gardener like for example where to plant, soil types for plants, pests and diseases and also how to lay out a border. In other words more general stuff. This week a woman was talking about growing cyclamen from seed which would probably take about 5 years! I like looking at other peoples gardens and also life on the allotment. A thoroughly enjoyable watch.

My cyclamen seem to have seeded all by themselves, especially in gravel.

Mind you, I was given the first one about 25 years ago by a work colleague.

Watched it earlier today. As someone who’s grown veg for the last 17 odd years flowers and other plants are a new world to me, so I’m happy to learn about growing most things.It’s a gentle, companionable programme.

Hope you’re right about Adam Frost Merlotgran and yes I meant Francis Tophill. Monty is lovely and of course he knows about gardening, but I always find myself learning more with Adam, who often sadly seemed to get hard landscaping gigs last season, which was such a waste of his gardening skills.
I think Monty deserves a change, he has been slogging away at Long Meadow for too long, there’s hardly any room left to plant anything new! And you never get a wide perspective of the garden, just tunnels. I think a lawn creates a meditative breathing space in a garden however big or small and sets of beautifully any flowers and shrubs grown. There are many of us who have moved from cities recently, who need solid basic gardening skills every week, along with keeping colour going all year, planting up borders, when and how to prune, when to plant brassicas and how to protect them and tips about lawn care etc etc I am afraid GW concentrates too much on the tropical jungle (even in the viewers excerpts) So many of our friends agree, that there is not enough on how to create a beautiful English garden however big or small. Happy gardening everyone..!

I agree totally Calendargirl. Useful, practical information and demonstrations are what I need. Oh how I long for the days of Geoff Hamilton. Sadly missed.

I love watching 'Gardeners World'. I also like seeing real gardens from viewers, as there's always something new to consider. However the timings for planting etc wouldn't do in Central Scotland. And some of the flowers would struggle where I live. I watch Beechgrove for that.

Wow!

WWM2 that is beautiful.

Is that at Anglesey Abbey?

How did you get into my garden wwm? ?

I could hardly bear to watch the elderly man cloud pruning the very top of a tree last night. ??

I can’t get higher than the third rung of a ladder these days.

I agree what was he doing? and he had an elf garden ?

I love the programme. Agree the man at the top of the tree pruning was scarey. Lovely couple though, given up their business to focus on their gardens.
Fascinated by the first part, where the lady with all the plans, showed us around her huge garden, what dedication.

Isn’t Monty Don’s grandson George a cutie?!