Gardeners’ World & Alan Titchmarsh Gardening Club 2025

As I had recorded GW before on my virgin box, it bookmarked the shorter versions that u is currently showing. I watched one and it was first shown in 2006 and it was very twee. It is from when they were at berryfields and had a young Monty don, Joe swift and Carol klein presenting. I didn't know they used to do trials, where the public took part but this one had the results of a chilli trial.

It might have been the oddity of going back that far but it seemed better than the modern day version, with more horticulture. Again it's not something I'd go out of my way to watch again but others might enjoy revisiting it.

 

I think it's often us that change and look back how programmes were and find ourselves switching off.

 

I think these days there's so much gardening information available eleswhere that programmes just don't carry the clout that they used to. The advent of video recorders and the ability to fast forward was a real game changer.

The same applies to gardening magazines, I used to subscribe to several but have now cut down to just one, mainly because I like the style.

I see that Mr Titchmarsh has set up his own YouTube channel. I do watch his programme (I record it), but what I notice more than anything is the way his presentation style has changed. He used to be much more (struggling for a word here) "direct" imo.

Someone mentioned the U channel 2006 reruns to me @Thevictorian . I must have a look .

I do enjoy watching things like GW to see lovely gardens and perhaps get inspiration, but the younger generations have different ways such as Tik Tok to get information, Basically I'm just an old bint .

 

I suppose the basic premise is the same @Fat Controller , "You want to grow things, this is how you do it", and then "Ok, you've done that, here's what you need to do now".

Geoff Hamilton was renowned for doing a task and then following it up, and to be fair to the Titchmarsh Gardening Club, it does seem to do that, revisiting gardeners of various experience over the course of the series.

Gardening by its very nature is repetitive in many ways, and as we become more experienced it's very tempting to think "But I know all this, this is boring " while they're trying to be all things to all people.

That's why when you look back at the old programmes they seem so "horticultural" as @Thevictorian described it.
Times have changed and you only have to look at the videos sent in by influencers to Mr Titchmarsh to see that everything is done at speed (including the subtitles). I struggle sometimes to keep up, being an old bint as previously described .

 

I'm afraid I don't watch the current Gardener's World either but I imagine that the content can be somewhat repetitive - similar to the GW magazine.
In the early days, it was more a How to Garden with basic info/advice given by gardeners. As @AnniD says, so much info is available elsewhere these days ( good or bad ) and the TV peogrammes are probably considered by many to be a bit old hat.
Those dreadful Makeover garden progs didn't exactly help either. IMO, Alan T made an awful mistake by getting involved with that nonsense. Instant gardens may well be what people want these days but it just doesn't work.

 

I have spent most of the evening watching old GW episodes back to back , and have to say I really enjoyed them. Whether it was the nostalgia (everyone looked so young !) I'm not entirely sure, but the earlier comments about it being more horticultural certainly rang true to me.

I was struck by the amount of space for planting, and also the Barnsdale style of individual areas.
My OH joined me for the last one and paid full attention, which doesn't normally happen these days.
He commented on Monty's presentation and said how much quicker it was, as was the programme as a whole. I did point out that Monty is now nearly 20 years older and like all of us has slowed down a bit, but it's not surprising that his general enthusiasm has changed.
I couldn't work out what was missing and then I realised - the dog shots !

 

Regarding AT, I think he is reading from Auto Cue now unlike before, when he would talk quite normally and loosely about things with inflections in his voice. It’s very stilted now, not very interesting to listen to and the subject matter is really quite basic. Beechgrove,, we had tried to watch it years ago, but it didn’t have the same appeal as GW. We tried again recently but still doesn’t appeal…plus I do confess I do struggle to understand some words. Again, quite basic in some topics.

It’s probably more a sense of knowing enough for one’s own needs and being quite happy with their lot/plot and being content with the level of knowledge already acquired. In other words, getting old, ​

 

I think our tolerance levels change as we age, well mine certainly do. I used to feast on every gardening programme I could find, and buy magazines to help feed the enthusiasm, but now? Nah. Maybe we older gardening folk know all we need to know to maintain and work our plots, large or small. We know what grows, and how, and where, and even why. We know, in other words, what we like and what works for us. Maybe it's Old Farts' Syndrome? Leave the new-fangled stuff to the next generation.

Yes, it's lovely to be inspired by what others have done, and to see different plants and to think 'Hmmmm....I wonder if that'd do well there...?' but maybe it's really a case of growing older and more experienced through the years and no longer needing to hang onto the coat-tails of TV gardener-presenters, none of whom I find particularly enthralling.

All I bother to watch now are old dvds of Geoff - my hero - Hamilton, and those lovely old 'Victorian Kitchen Garden' and 'Victorian Flower Garden' series with the inestimable Harry Dodson. Both long-gone and pushing up daisies now, of course but so sadly missed. PROPER old-fashioned gardeners, rather than presenters of gardening shows. Yes, I know AT's a qualified, experienced gardener, but I've never warmed to him, too 'Hail fellow well met' and obsequious to my mind. I don't buy gardening mags any more. Too many ads, too costly, and too little time.

 

I visited the original Beechgrove garden in Aberdeen. It was small and compact which you could relate to unlike gardening programs on TV today showing 5 acre gardens with someone planting veg in raised beds the size of my back garden where the owners obviously spend a fortune on it.

 

My hero as well @Tinkerton .
I've visited Barnsdale a couple of times, and although I'm not normally given to flights of fancy, I'm sure I felt his presence.



I'm sure different generations say the same about Percy Thrower, Alan Titchmarsh et al.

 

The (few) Geoff Hamilton videos I watched on YT were quite boring considering that gardening and ideas what gardens look and serve nowadays, I’m not sure if he would have changed over the years.
Even a Titchmarsh is quite old fashioned in these days.
I personally never liked these boring borders from a time 20 years ago. Gardens like Plantminded ones are what I call a garden, and all kind of wildy ones which give many space for different animals and insects. (Apart from foxes )

 

I like foxes. It's humans I'm not keen on.

 

Old Percy always wore a shirt and tie and suit to do his gardening.

I can remember a mate of mine at the time saying his soil always looked like something out of grow bag.
Back when grow bags were good stuff.

Did he ever get dirty do you think, he was to gardening what Fanny Cradock was to cooking .

 

Cue the old British joke about Fanny and her doughnuts, perhaps?