Topic: Gardeners World Allotment

[sawfish]

I too loved the big dig. The london guy and his daughter were hilarious.

[Tee Gee]

As I have mentioned elsewhere I don't watch TV gardening as a rule, but because of all the interest in this particular thread I thought I would have a look at in 'Catch up TV'

Surprise! Surprise! I enjoyed it.

OK he is going to have problems with weeds (don't we all) but that is controllable and if he is prepared to put the work in he will be successful. As he says it is up to him if he want fancy shaped beds so good luck to him.

The bit that come over to me is; his lack of knowledge about soils & planting.

There he is a 'designer' that probaly knows all that there is to know about designing a garden and what plants to put where, but doesn't know the basics.

The bit I never liked about 'makeover' programmes (hence my reason for not watching TV gardening programmes) was how easy it was to produce a lovely garden then leave the owner high and dry about its aftercare.........could it be the presenters didn't know how??.....It would seem so with Joe.

I am going to keep an open mind on the final outcome and probably will watch the series if only to see what happens.

In my opinion a garden will only give out as much effort as that that is put into it!! so lets see what he puts into it.

What I hope doesn't happen is an army of BBC minders come in off camera and get the plot ready for the next weeks programme.

I want to see 'warts & all!!

As with all 'newbies' I wish him the best of luck,  after all, many years ago I was as naive as he seems to be, but I kept at it and now I consider myself to be a reasonable 'grower'

note; I never said 'gardener' I don't think I will ever be a good gardener :(

Guess we will have to open up a new  board now  just to pass comment on the series  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I managed to get the hang of Iplayer, but watched the wrong episode by mistake. I was rather irritated by Carol Klein zipping about from one West Country garden to another without ever giving anyone a chance to get a real look at any of them, constant references to 'the Silly Isles' rather than 'the Isles of Scilly' or 'Scilly', which is a good way to get up the locals' noses down there and show yourself up as an ignorant emmet, and an RHS expert demonstrating how to prune a clematis without showing me anything of how to do it!

[timnsal]

I just looked on the list of last Friday's programmes - easier than trying to search.

After some of the comments people have made about the problems he was going to have, I was surprised at how much was made within the programme about the couch and the problems it was going to cause.

Thought the beds were ugly, but each to his own, I suppose.



Sally

[Bill Door]

Ok after much fiddling around finally downloaded the episode and watched it.  I could not watch that episode direct from the BBC site but I could watch the previous week.  I think there was a problem with that particular show.

So how did the BBC do.  My opinion is that it was a very good program to watch and I agree with the points made by Springbokgirlie on this thread.  I think the question is  "how will he dig himself out of this weed problem".  Say what you like I think there will be loads of people watching with dribble rolling down their chins in anticipation.  Some hoping it will go wrong.  Others hoping it will work out and they will have a saviour for their own garden/allotment.

I watched Geoff and I think he would be happy that joe is at least putting himself in a lot of gardeners shoes.  I think they know how critical gardeners can be and it was nice to see him go off and "blag" wood.  It was also a decent touch when Cleve gave him a small bag of potatoes and a few Jerusalm Artichokes.

It was good to see his face when he suddenly realised he would have to get planting soon otherwise he would not grow anything in the season.  He does know that he has a weed problem but he seems to be prepared to fight it out.

If you did not like it, fine you don't have to watch.  Remember this is entertainment, so either treat it as good fun or maybe just learn something from it.  If you thought it was so bad that you will never watch GW again, then maybe you should write to the BBC telling them exactly why and what you would like to see changed.

I for one am arranging the cold beer, crisps and video this time so that I can review the allotment bit again over the weekend.  Who knows this may become a classic like the Victorian Garden.

happy planting

Bill

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've managed to watch the allotment episode. In fairness, Joe does appear to have got everything bar the shed free, and he only paid £25 for the shed. He had peple helping him, but so do a fair few people on my site, and he appears to have had good reason to travel some distance; I wouldn't want to wait three years for a plot either.

I see no reason why everything on an allotment should be straight rows and right angles, but I do think his triangles are too big. Couch and mares' tail are going to be the main problems, but he does seem to be aware of it. He's really set himself up by adding all that compost; he's going to have the same problem I had at one stage. Couch is shallow-rooting, but if you dig it and don't get it out, you put some roots down at a spade's depth. If you then put stuff on top, you then have some so deep you won't get it out without double digging, and it'll just keep coming back until you do go down deep. On the other hand, he will improve that clay soil with it.

What would have been far better is if they'd set up two allotments side by side, in a similar state. Joe could have done one, while the other could have been done by someone who knew what they were doing, and it could have demonstrated how it should be done, while Joe showed everyone how it shouldn't.

[Susiebelle]

Robert I think that's a bril' idea, but these celeb gardeners don't like to be seen  "getting it wrong" there are not many like the late Geoff Hamilton who would share his mistakes with the viewers.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They're too insecure. Geoff was a genuine expert, and there aren't many of those on the box. It's actually quite brave of Joe to go showing himself up like this.

[theothermarg]

I forgot I can get catchup TV so I have seen the prog at last,having read all this thread I expected not to enjoy it but I did :o I think it is very brave of joe to set himself up like that cuz it,s just how some newbie,s are
over the weeks (months in real time) we will be able to see why the roots should have been dug and why raised beds are the shape they are mmm just wondering if there will be a rash of diamonds now
so it is a bit unbelievable that things shoud just happen like that but things do happen that seem unbelievable sometimes
marg

[Deb P]

A rash of diamonds.....we obviously have very trendy allotmenteers on our site...look what I spotted today doing my rounds for the plot assessments .......

[sarah]

ooo, i feel a potager coming on...

[SMP1704]

I also finally managed to watch this episode.

I can't help wondering if too much is being made of getting all the roots out first.  My plot is Marestail infested and I will never get all the roots out, no matter how carefully and thoroughly I dig and weed.  I rotavated a bit last year (shock horror) and guess what - less marestail growth than the areas that I had dug manually.

Rotavating meant I finally have the whole plot under cultivation and I will continue to 'bother' the marestail.

Joe clearly said that he needs to dig his beds by hand and he hasn't applied the compost yet until he had dug and weeded.  I think his biggest problem is going to be trying to walk along his woodchip paths when they are lush with marestail growth. :o

I also think his beds are too wide but then I have some 'beds' that I have to walk on to get to the middle   - 8x4 is just too piddling for things like spuds and sweetcorn.

I liked the video diary feel to the episode, it gave a timeline to how long this had taken, so although we saw it spliced into 30 mins, it had taken him about 10 days to get to that stage.

Anyone else familiar with Gt Cambridge Road and Church Street in Edmonton?  I'm pretty certain that is where his allotment is.

I don't usually watch GW but I will tune in tomorrow for the next installment.

[bluehousehill]

i thought it might be there on the grt cambridge road/church st. I grew up in Enfield and now work in edmonton and pass it on my way to work. it really looked familiar and i can just imagine the reaction of the peeps of edmonton of what we have all made of the allotment! lol

you never know I might be able to srounge some wood around there in the local diy store ;D ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Getting all the root out probably dioesn't matter; my strategy is to get most of it out, then dig out the last bits when I take the crop, by which time they've all revealed themselves. But you do need to get to a certain point; if the plot's left full of couch, it all forms a mat and you're just digging turf again.

[Baaaaaaaa]

... Remember this is entertainment, so either treat it as good fun or maybe just learn something from it. 

Spot on. The beeb aims to produce entertainment, better than ITV.
Its having to compete with Corrie and A Place In The Sun.

Isn't the idea to produce a cliff hanger each week to get the ratings up - just like Bill Oddie and Spring Watch.

- How will Joe deal with the weeds ?
- What will he plant first ?
- Will the diamonds be successful ?
- Will the no-dig raised beds succeed ?
- What will Joe blag next?

... Tune in next week for another thrilling episode of "Joe in ... O u t e r   L o n d o n".

[redimp]

I watched it last night and really enjoyed it.  My take on the weeds is he obviously knows more about couch than I did when I took on mine (which looked very similar).  I got mine rotovated and the roots were all chopped up and in January I was trying to pick out bits of root and not too much soil but I too was also in a hurry to get planting (who isn't when they are new) and put plants in hoping they would compete with couch - some did, some didn't.  Starting my fourth year, I am winning the war with the couch and we are down to skirmishes in most areas.  It is now a war with the ground elder.

[albacore1854]

A rash of diamonds.....we obviously have very trendy allotmenteers on our site...look what I spotted today doing my rounds for the plot assessments .......

muppets

[redimp]

I'd agree with that - just because they have seen it on telly, they follow slavishly.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I am winning the war with the couch and we are down to skirmishes in most areas.  It is now a war with the ground elder.

Ground elder is much harder to deal with. keep at it, every time you take a crop, and you will get there.

[Plot69]

Can't wait for the second installment tonight!