Gardeners World Allotment

[allaboutliverpool]

So Joe wants to feed his family. It looks as if it will be couch grass and Mares tail.

I do not think much of his impatience and hope that viewers ignore his methods.

A big thumbs down ???

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments4_digging_the_plot.html

[allaboutliverpool]

[morton]

I hope Monty waived his fee because he was hardly in it although maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

[cambourne7]

i actualy though it was pretty good because hes making all the same mistakes people just starting seam to make on our site. And from this over the year they will learn together.

Gardeners world does not seam to be aimed at people who have been gardening for flowers and veg for a while and it might have been better if all three presenters had got allotments and shown a range of methods but that would have taken 30 min and they would not devote that much of there time to this would they?

[Eristic]

they would not devote that much of there time to this would they?

They are not capable of doing an allotment. I doubt if they would even know where to start.

[allaboutliverpool]

I agree Cambourne, but worry that everyone with a new allotment is going to rush out and hire a rotovator.

[Plot69]

Bring back Titchmarsh, he'd know what to do!

[gwynleg]

Even with the machine taking the top level off - do you believe he did all that in one day?!

[asbean]

It exhausted me, watching that.  In one day he found a plot, got a man with machine to skim the top, dug it over, found the pallets etc (wasn't that conveninent???), built a shed, my goodness, and all I can manage is to build and fill a couple of raised beds.

Makes it look easy, doesn't it - It's no wonder so many people want allotments, if taht's all it takes.

[allaboutliverpool]

I have a suspicion that the machine did do that, and that he does not have a secret army helping him otherwise he would have done better.

When I dug the first part of my plot by day two it was clear of perennial weeds and you can see in the photo that several hours work was about 10 feet by 5 feet.

The whole plot took several months.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments4_digging_the_plot.html

[cambourne7]

hang on your forgetting about the 20 people behind the camera!!

[gunnerbee]

I know its not long since dad passed away, but it chuckles me that he used to call Monty Don "Bigfoot"!! he always thought he was a messy, clumsy gardener!!!
i can still see him rolling his eyes and shaking his head at him.  :)

[Plot69]

Makes it look easy, doesn't it - It's no wonder so many people want allotments, if taht's all it takes.

And it's the same reason so many give them up again after a few weeks. In the 13 months I've had my plot I've seen quite a few new plot holders take over a new plot, dig for a day or two and then never return. One plot just at the back of mine is on it's third owner since I've been there.

And still they keep coming...

[ninnyscrops]

Hold on and fair do's - at least they are featuring MORE allotment and veg growing now  :)

[DenBee]

Hold on and fair do's - at least they are featuring MORE allotment and veg growing now  :)

I agree with that - I thought the actual time devoted to this was excellent.  I was expecting a 10 minute slot.

I was muttering all the way through it though.  From "lucky beggars getting someone to clear the undergrowth for nowt", to "Oh gawd, look at all those weed roots chopped up all over the place".  And why does he think he knows more than the old stagers?  Just cos they've been doing it for years doesn't mean he can't come and show them a thing or two, eh?  ;)

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of his methods, they really did make it look all too easy.  What we would all give for use of a big transit van, and a very serendipitous donation of expensive timber, eh?

Still, good on them for giving this much of the programme over to it.

And I do like the pretty shaped beds.  Even if they're not going to be the most practical things ever.  :)

[simon404]

I still think it's an April fool joke and next week he'll tell us that this is not how to start an allotment  ::)

[betula]

I think it was a lot more realistic than a lot of veg growing programmes we see.

It did show you that it is not easy getting a plot close to home

It showed that you are likely to get an overgrown plot.

I think it was right to rotate.I used to say it was wrong but after seeing rotovated plots I have changed my mind.

Yes it was a lottie persons dream to have the bark,the muck the pallets the help,the shed all at hand but they are making a TV programme and It cant really be shown in real time can it.

I liked him daring to be different with his diamond shaped beds.

Yes he will find they are not ideal but so what.He is having fun with his lottie and to me that is what it is all about.

I am looking forward to seeing how he gets on with it all. :)

[Tin Shed]

I am waiting for the couch and marestail to grow through the pallet base of the shed - or the wind to knock it down ::)

[DenBee]

I have to agree with you Betula about the rotovation.  We've got a 10 pole (or maybe a bit bigger) plot which looks pretty much like his did at the beginning (you can see it if you zoom in on my profile), and I have to admit the idea of digging it all by hand is very daunting.  I can see how people would just give up and go home forever after doing about a quarter of it.

[simon404]

The thing is by rotovating he chopped the couch grass and marestail  into many more pieces; he'd already said this, his words were something like "where you had one weed you now have ten" - and yet he still went ahead and did it. Unbelievable. Act in haste, repent at leisure.  :'(

[betula]

Yes but you are always pulling weeds anyway.

Over the years you gradually dig most of it away. :)