Topic: Who Pays This Sort Of Money???

[Tee Gee]

I shudder to think what this would cost at her rates? and these are only my bedding plants. (approx 1000)

I had a similar amount of vegetable plants as well.

At a rough check they cost me around £200

[pippy]

Personally I think this is very extreme, but most of the mainstream gardening press I see is like this.  There seems to be a rich mafia doing the articles.  I guess in mainstream gardening (flowers, plants etc.) we don't mind reading about the unusual and exotic which, lets face it is what we can't all have or afford!  

I think that's why we all enjoy forums like this - they are much more about real gardening and sharing things!

I'd like to read an article by her gardener much more .... bet he has some interesting tales to tell! ;) ;D

I guess on the positive side she is providing employment for someone anyway.

[Trevor_D]

Be fair to the lady: "we" moved the topsoil; "we" terraced the patch....

Just picture Shez & Zac out there in all weathers, getting stuck in....

(Or mayhap the same royal "we" who did all the work is the same 'umble servant who sends one a weekly hamper when one has to be in Town?)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Why don't they get a real gardener (perhaps the guy who works for her) to write instead? It would be far more interesting than that crap.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

I spent a large part of Sunday ranting about the sheer smugness and dilletanteism of this person. Have calmed down a bit now.

that's it exactly. What kind of world does she live in, that she doesn't realise that EVERY SINGLE WORD she said would have any normal person either laughing their head off, or screaming with rage??

[DenBee]

I do wonder about these newspapers, and just what demographic they convince their advertisers they are selling to.  ::)

Like the supplement in The Times a couple of months ago about 'frugal' weddings.  One of the weddings featured 'only' cost about £10,000. Now that's what I call money-saving.  :o  ;D

Just be glad you don't have to mix with the sort of people who think that kind of article about self-sufficiency reflects any kind of real life.  ;)  Wonder if she also sews her own designer evening wear.

[Pesky Wabbit]

To answer the thread title question - I've sussed who pays this sort of money - this woman:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/07/sheherazade-goldsmith

you couldn't make it up!  ;D ;D ;D

The Tory MP for Richmond Park - one of the top Tory strong holds. Not just any old nob off the street gets a job like that.

The whole thing was probably done on expenses over the years. And I bet that hamper is transported on expenses (how many organic miles from Dartmore to Richmond ?)

And no the Tory elite dont have a clue about how commoners live, why would they ?

[pippy]

That's exactly it Denbee !  I find I look at these newspapers and laugh at what their latest idea of a "Budget Holiday Destination" is for a start... It's usually not North Wales in a field with a Tent and a tap .....

Whats more I do find it interesting when they have "How to grow ..." articles.  I read one earlier this year on Asparagus and it seemed to include how to buy the plants and how to pick and eat the stuff - did someone miss out what happens in the middle  ??? :o.

The gardening press (and most of the rest of the press) is pure commercialisation most of the time!

[DenBee]

Growing veggies is very fashionable at the moment. And the chattering classes do love a bandwagon. Didn't take Cath Kidston long to market a designer tent now, did it? Speaking of camping - have you heard of glamping? It's glamorous camping. Not done as you and I do it, Pippy. For example, they have glass-domed tents. Can you adam-n-eve it?  ;D Quote from the Torygraph "Research shows that old-fashioned camping is dying – but a more luxurious form, with glamorous accessories and spacious tents, is flourishing" Wonder who does their research?

All us sensible types can do is sit it out and wait for them to find something else to patronise, leaving us plebs to get on with it proper-like.  ;)

[pippy]

 ;D ;D ;D ;D :o :o

Must admit, it's nice to go to places the "Chattering classes"don't! 

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

-Mummy?

-Yes, James?

-Why don't I have a funny name like Sheherazade, Zac, Uma or Thyra?

-That's because you're really the gardener's. And when he's too old to work, and we have him put down, you're taking over...........

[asbean]

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D  Like it, RT  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Eristic]

we don't mind reading about the unusual and exotic which, lets face it is what we can't all have or afford! 

Nah. I doubt that there is any veg that any good lottie person cannot afford and as for exotic, I reckon that I regularly eat exotic vegetables that the majority of rich folk have never even heard of.

[1066]

The problem with the newpapers and magazines etc is that they have to sell stuff, and so called sponsers are happy to pay for the articles plus practically everyone featured in an article has something to sell - a new book / film / product etc. Makes reading these papers either very dull or as others have said rant inducing! Its one of the reasons I gave up buying gardening magazines a few years ago, cos the jmajority just churn out the same old stuff, then their feature gardens are always by someone who has got something to sell. So I gave the mags to a local charity and went online.  ;D

[ajb]

Thanks everyone, spent the last 10 minutes laughing through this thread.