YAAAAAAY MONTY DON BACK AT GARDENERS WORLD

[lottiedolly]

not a lot more i can say really, just read that Toby Buckland is out and Monty Don will be presenting from his garden in Herefordshire.  ;D  ;D  ;D

[lottiedolly]

[betula]

Sorry but he bores me and he always seems depressed,I don't want to look
at his garden in Hertfordshire,whats wrong with the BBC garden ?

Suppose it makes life easier for him  .

BRING BACK TOBY,not these old has beens .

[asj]

Agree with Betula, except that I'd say  bring back Alan! ;D

[Obelixx]

Monty does suffer from bouts of depression and uses gardening as therapy.  However I do agree he has a bit of a "sackloth and ashes" attitude as though he feels guilty for enjoying his garden.   He's also a bit too earnest for me sometimes.

However, he does champion veggies and organic gardening and seasonal activities.  I hope we'll get much more practical stuff with labour and money saving ideas that really work.    It'll be interesting to see his garden and what he's done with it since the floods.  I never cottoned on to Greenacres - bad layout, ludicrous raised pond, jungley borders, the front gardens, the back gardens............ none of it seemed cohesive or well designed and far too often they just chucked money at a problem.

For me, the best bits of GW this year have all been either propagating from Carol's garden or external visits.   Dismal.

Let's just hope the return to Monty includes a shake-up of the production team who have clearly lost the plot.

[Froglegs]

So all that money they spent on Greenacres was for nothing then  >:(
Sooner have Alys than that posh bird De Thame,and i would have got rid of bloody Joe he's a waste a space.

[pumkinlover]

I think a lot of valid points have been raised and look forward to Monty Don again, but I do not know how much of the problems are down to the production team and I suspect Toby is being used as a fall guy. I used to enjoy his articles in Kitchen Garden magazine and I think he has a lot of knowledge.
He used to sneak in some interesting tips and information- at least I thought so.  He also came over as a really nice guy and seemed very genuine and I do not like the way he has been dumped. ???

I do welcome a hopeful return to more in depth look at gardening and I would like to see a lot more use of the real specialist expert growers and their enthusiasm which can be a tad infectious.
However a lot of that could have been done without treating someone so badly. ???

Personally I think that gardening should be looked at in the wider perspective of the environment- but that is just my view. Oh and I love Alys Fowler she is so bright and positive and "girl next door", if I was not already into gardening she would encourage me to have a go.

Anne x

[goodlife]

I think biggest mistake GW did with Greenacre is that they never really shared the garden with viewers..everything was done behind the scene and then they just showed how to plant this and that without actually starting from begining..planning, building, ground work, soil preps, planting...
Everything was done like 'photo snaps' before and after..garden didn't develop with us. Bringing up the plot was rushed and I felt so dissapointed that they waisted good opportunity show us how and what involves when you do garden from plank 'canvas'. It would have been nice to know how much they spent different projects..I'm sure there is need for that info too..no everybody has idea of costs.

[rosebud]

  Bring on G W, cannot wait for Monty's return, for me he is a real gardener.
really looking forward to the program now,  that other drip Toby was neither use nor ornament.

There are many many people that suffer from depression including myself so i do not think that needs to be brought into the equation. We are talking gardening program here not personal illnes.
Good luck to Monty Don, i only wish Alan, would also come back with him.

[Garden Manager]

Must say i was surprised to read the news on the BBC gardening site. Thought it must be some sort of hoax or mistake, but on further investigation found it to be genuine.

I have mixed feelings about it. i personallly like Monty as a presenter and as a person, but that said i also like Toby and thought he was making progress - i felt the show was getting better by the end of this year's run. Greenacre too was starting to develop nicely, though i could never figure out the geography of the place. Shame in some ways to ditch the garden as well as Toby.

THAT SAID the show has lost something since it has no longer been filmed in the main presenters garden, so moving it to monty's garden might restore some of the lost magic that we had with Geoff and Alan. Plus i have read and heard a lot about Monty's garden and would love to see it on screen. Not sure how it would work a TV garden though. It was one of the reasons Alan quit was that he felt Barleywood couldnt develop any further as a TV garden. Monty's garden is well developed so i wonder how willing he will be to rip up parts of it to show us new projects, plantings etc? Perhaps it will be a new garden on un gardened land Monty already owns, created specifically for GW?

Just have to wait and see i suppose.

[Spudbash]

I wish Monty Don extremely well. He's had a mini-stroke and peritonitis, as well as depression/seasonal affective disorder, so I hope his health is now taking a turn for the better. As someone who works in the media myself, I wish Toby well, too - it's tough when regular work comes to an end.

For myself as a viewer, I hope to see no more loving close-ups of filthy fingernails and far fewer magazine-style presentations.

In this country, there's a vast number of amateur gardeners who together uphold a culture of hundreds of clubs and societies. There's an immense amount of diverse and specialised knowledge among us. So I hope next year's GW drops the gloss, tones down the enthusiasm and simply looks, listens, shows and tells what's out there.

Monty Don's series on craftsmen was superb and if GW adopts some of those production values, then, with Monty's sensitive and intelligent approach, the joy of gardening will shine through.

:)

[betula]

I have every sympathy with people who have had strokes ,depression whatever

but he is paid to do a job and he has too gloomy a personality to inspire me on that programme.His books are OK.

Toby is always upbeat and I think has loads to offer.

What I have read in Monty's books I don't think he has much know how about Gardening on a budget.

We shall see.  ;D

[caroline7758]

Yaaay! I've nothing against Toby but will be very happy to see Monty back.

Can't please all the people all the time.....

[cornykev]

Monty who.    ??? ??? ???

[SamLouise]

Monty who.    ??? ??? ???

Python?

[Digeroo]

Python?

;D ;D

I am sorry for Toby but I have never taken to him always felt he was talking down to me.  Sounded rather patronising.  He rathe lost me when he told me I needed a trowel a dig a hole. 

Though not sure I think they should have gone backwards and resurrected Monty. 

[Spudbash]

I think A4A-ers know a lot about gardening on a budget. GW needs to reflect that knowledge so others can benefit and if Monty wants to come and ask us what to share what we know, I'm sure lots of us would welcome his visit.

;D

[valmarg]

What I have read in Monty's books I don't think he has much know how about Gardening on a budget.

No, I agree.  No one was quite as good at 'make-do-and-mend, cum cheap alternatives' as the late great Geoff Hamilton.  The BBC has not managed to find anyone to 'fill his boots', and the sad part is it is unlikely they ever will.

When old Marsh'tits took over it was at the height of the BBC extravagance years.  Well, you spend £100 here, and £1,000 there, and with a bit of luck you can have the Chatsworth formal gardens in your backyard.  Money was no object.

The programme was not on the same planet as we gardeners.  Old Marshtits was all ornamentals, as what we are interested in is edibles.

Monty Don was/is more interested in edibles.

The sooner they dump the tart de Thame the better.  You will never see her dirty fingernails.

valmarg

[caroline7758]

Haven't seen Rachel de Thame on GW for a long time-they  only seem to bring her out for Chelsea now.

[Obelixx]

I think you need to look more closely Valmarg.

GH tended to offer the instant/expensive and budget version of his projects and was a master at forward planning by taking cuttings and sowing seeds which is something I have greatly missed in recent more haphazard, unplanned series of GW which all seem to be based on expensive impulse buy projects which are then shelved.

Rachel de Thame very sensibly wears gloves to garden when she's pregnant or nursing and she and her child are vulnerable to toxoplasmosis and other soil borne organisms.    I've also seen her gardening with bare hands on GW when planting but she does wears gloves when pruning thorny bushes or clearing overgrown gardens and rubbish as she did for one garden renovation feature filmed over a season on GW.  I'd far rather see her return than Sarah Raven.

Alan Titchmarsh's recent series on the Beeb has included tips on how to do projects cheaply, as did his How to Be a Gardener and quite a lot of his GW.  I think we  have to accept that there are still people who have more time pressures than financial pressures and want instant effects as well as many others who enjoy the whole process of thinking, planning, sowing, taking cuttings and growing their own plants for garden features.

Allotmenteers and hobby gardeners are not all about ingenuity and thrift.   I have gardening friends who think nothing of spending €3000 because they want a rose arbour NOW!  even though he's built it himself.   If I did one I'd have to buy the wood over several months and save up for the roses or call in Xmas and birthday presents as I've done for my latest trellis and arch project.

Gardening is for everyone whatever their income and budget.   Gardening TV should be about communicating the joy, fun, satisfaction and rewards of working with plants be they for ornament or consumption.

Sadly, I'm not convinced Monty is the man for communicating the joy and thus inspiring people to have a go themselves.

[betula]

What I would love to see is the BBC do a weekly prog dedicated to growing fruit and veg,no flash presenters just someone to take us all around the Allotments and let the growers take the lead.There was a similar prog once on another channel and I really enjoyed it. :)