Thursday 18 September 2014

Why I prefer Beechgrove Garden to Gardener's World

First things first, I have updated our menu tab at the top. You can see just how low the cost of our meat consumption is!

I've mentioned a few times now, about the BBC Scotland's (will we still have it if they separate from us?) Beechgrove Garden. It is generally on a Thursday at 7.30pm on FreeSat channel 970 then repeated on a Sunday morning at 08.30  on BBC 2.  If you view your TV through a different broadcaster, or use Freeview,  you'll need to find out what channel it is on!

Last week for example, Beechgrove Garden covered the following subjects:

Growing gourds,
growing but being careful with poisonous plants,
gardening at 700' above sea level,
a tomato feed trial - bought tomato food versus home made comfrey tea (the comfrey won),
growing things in the polythene greenhouse,
squash trials - growing in peat free versus peat based compost (the peat based compost won),
moss removal from lawns,
lifting, dividing and replanting bearded iris,
starting Christmas hyacinths,
growing your own loofah and most liked by me,
how to store your vegetables overwinter such as in clamps or keeping them in the refrigerators for longer than normal so they don't go off!

If you want to know how to keep your vegetables fresh in your fridge for weeks, check out the programme that aired Thursday 11th or Sunday 14th September. It was very informative.You can also catch up with most of the programmes on the BBC iplayer.

Every week they are trialling something of one kind versus something similar, testing different soil conditions, harvesting vegetables, fruit and flowers, how to prune everything, feeding, weeding, growing in a greenhouse or conservatory, polythene greenhouse or poly tunnels etc. Ground covers plants, feeding the soil etc. They usually do one visit either to a garden or community programme they are part of. They also have downloadable fact sheets re each programme!!

Gardener's World in the same week covered:

Planting wild flowers near hedges where nothing else will grow
planting Foxtail lily,
lifting basil and replanting with parsley,
Carol visiting a Salvia garden
3 things to do this week.

The thing that Monty doesn't do most weeks is vegetables. Come on Monty, many people are growing their own for the first time in the current economic climate yet you rarely talk about them, you seem to far prefer flowers and visiting predominantly flower gardens. Maybe it should be renamed Flower Gardener's World!


12 comments:

  1. I haven't seen the Beechgrove Gardening programme but it does sound more like a home style garden rather than a showy garden which is what Gardeners World is about. I loved the series Fork to Fork that Monty did, maybe they should bring that back, or better still Wartime Kitchen Garden :-)

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    1. It will be finishing in the next few weeks, we set our recorder to do a series record, that way, we never miss one.

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  2. We lived in Scotland for 10 years and LOVED Beechgrove! I was delighted to find that we can now watch it down here in the Fens, just not so chuffed about the time, but hoping I shall catch some of it on iplayer or something - I was thrilled to see that Jim and Carol are still there.

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    1. See above reply about a series record, makes life easier.

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    2. I don't have anything to record it on, but thanks for the thought xx

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    3. Iplayer then or online as a reading article plus the fact sheets.

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  3. We very rarely watch Gardener's World now, but J has been watching Beechgrove for a very long time. It seems like there's always something new and interesting on Beechgrove. I find Gardener's World very superficial these days.

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    1. I record GW then whizz through it until I find something interesting, not very often nowadays I'm afraid.

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  4. This is my first year growing and I found Beechgrove really helpful, I don't think I took anything away from Gardeners World that helped. I like Monty though x

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    1. He is okay but my all time favourite was Geoff Hamilton. Not been the same since then!

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  5. I stopped watching GW years ago my favourite was Geoff hamilton now there was a man ahead of his time and sadly missed.I have been watching Beechgrove garden for years at least 10 and love good old Jim and carol.

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    1. I agree, I cried on and off for weeks when Geoff died. Beechgrove presenters make me laugh out loud on occasions with their interactions!

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