Joe's allotment

[cornykev]

Borlotti may correct me on this but I don't think he even went back to pick his Sweetcorn, bloody criminal that.            

[PurpleHeather]

I don't think the guy ever wanted an allotment. Just a job presenting with the BBC.

There is a lot of faking on TV which is why I never watch their gardening programmes any more. Get fed up with things like

This compost is delicious..........

[albion]

Thinking about gardening books I reckon they are now just published so that people will buy them as presents for gardening friends or relatives. Every gardening programme on the BBC seems to have a book out.

[albion]

P.S Just to add I have learnt my lesson regarding gardening books. Especially now that I have found this site. A veritable fountain of Knowledge. Wont be bothering with gardening on TV either after the Joe thing and the awful Chelsea Flower show.

[Digeroo]

It rather puts one off buying books when you feel they are a bit of a con.  

I have had an allotment for just over a year, obviously my book is long overdue.  It would be a pity to concentrate on things I have been growing for 37 or so years so it will be best to concentrate on the things I have never grown before and obviously even more on things I have never grown at all.  I have decided to try different methods of growing beans but I shall ignore this in favour of some rather obvious crud and mind numbing irrelevancies.  

No one will of course publish it becuase I am not a TV presenter.

I once took part in a BBC TV program fronted by Robert Kilroy Silk it was a complete con.  They editted the program and but cutting what what said made me look a complete idiot and then went on filming after they announced the recording had ended.

[tonybloke]

Having visited Bob Flowerdew's Garden I can say that he actually practices what he preaches,and has been a practical, hands-on gardener for many years. Most of the images in his books are taken in his own garden. All gardening authors are not equal.

[goodlife]

I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for the bloke... ..we are on page 4 of the crucifixion...
..Nah..I changed my mind..he deserves every bit of it..what am I thinking...
I wonder if he knows about A4A?...

[Obbelix]

I don't think Joe's "lifestyle" precludes looking after his allotment properly if he really wants to.  After all, he is best friends with Cleve West, an excellent gold medal winning garden designer with a wide range of clients and his own allotment.

Joe can't even keep his own front garden tidy - and yet he's done a design for a modern front garden with bicycle store and recycling bins on GW.   He may well be a nice chap but I can't help feeling he's just a gardening fraud.   

[betula]

You can't say that about Joe............I do love him so.

[Duke Ellington]

Here you are Betula !! Just for you !!

[betula]

Oh thanks Duke.He is so cute and lovely and.............

[Borlotti]

I am sure that some good came out of it, all our allotments are now full and some have been split into 3 so more people can have one.  Joe did seem keen to keep the allotment for his own use but think he had too many work commitments and it was too far from his house.  It was interesting to see him at work but suppose we were all a bit disappointed when he didn't turn up and pick his crops.  It is amazing that everyone was so honest and no-one helped themselves.  Perhaps he could have let other allotment people have some rather than just let them go to waste.  Oh well it is being cleared now and hopefully some new people will enjoy it.  I feel guilty now, but we all love you Joe, was only stating facts. 

[Mortality]

Nah Toby is much better looking 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Buckland

[Sparkly]

I wouldn't blame Joe. He is only doing his job. I would like to see the BBC do a show using real allotmenteers (like the big dig? think it was called that). The only thing I would say is they would twist things to make it into a docu-soap. Did anyone watch the show 'a band for britain'? I have been involved in brass bands all my life. Some of the people in that were portrayed really badly. It wasn't really very much like what it is like in typical brass bands nowaways.

[asbean]

Or it would turn into a masterchef -style programme with two dreadful judges pontificating 

[Mortality]

Or it would turn into a masterchef -style programme with two dreadful judges pontificating 

...over who wins the best Onions catagory?? 

[daxzen]

television isn't real its hard to believe anything you see these days.

Joe gone - its no loss - what makes me really sad is that I predicted it.

Joe is a landscape gardener and designer - he was using it to promote himself

he uses the word design in every other other sentence on everything i have seen him on - i think its a way for him to remember what he is trying to be.

anyway i think that there is an allotmenteer that should be doing a weekly show

Terry Walton of Radio 2 and SAGA fame.

He is a proper allotmenteer - he cares about the things we do and if he had the chance to do the show - Id be there watching and learning

its all about timing really!

[caroline7758]

This is a difficult one- I like Joe and no, TV isn't real life, so what could he do? Maybe it would have been better if he'd made (or been told to make- he's not the producer after all!) an allotment at Greenacre (is that what the GW garden is called?) but that would have seemed even more fake and we wouldn't have seen the other plot-holders which made it more interesting.

I agree about Terry Walton- he was on the "Big Dig" series on UKTV gardens, wasn't he?

[Pesky Wabbit]

Wasn't the whole point to show what taking on an allotment would be like for first timers and what to expect - including the social aspects ?

Once you've been there a year things, just, roughly repeat. Planting etc. can equally as well be shown at Green Ache, or do you want to see endless episodes on digging and weeding ?

Did Jo do a good job? Who knows, how can you measure that? Its not as if we're short of applicants. I guess it showed those without allotments what it was all about.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It struck me as the standard advice regurgitated yet again, with big glossy pics to pad it out. They have a place for beginners, but I wonder how many such books are really needed?