Gardeners’ World & Alan Titchmarsh Gardening Club 2025

I found last night's programme very soporific, but that could have been down to the heat .
I like Frances as a presenter, but I'm afraid I did fast forward through a fair bit, purely because it was of no interest to me.

I did enjoy Carol's piece about early Summer, and also the lady who collects bits and pieces for her garden. She said some people may say she isn't a "proper gardener", but I disagree. There are no hard and fast rules these days, and personally I liked it.

Finally Adam Frost's visit to the garden by the River Derwent.
The way it recovers from flood damage most years was fascinating, and I did like the attitude of the owner.
Adam always seems to "get" the gardens and owners/users that he visits.

Finally, just a reminder that next week's programme is on Thursday at 8pm.

 

Late night AT program has a very disconcerting signer in the bottom RHS of the picture. If deaf people can see a signer surely they could read subtitles.

 

Maybe being deaf could make it difficult to learn to read? But I'm only guessing.

 

I have to agree @AnniD about last nights GW. A lot of it wasn’t for us so the ff was on quite a bit. Overall, not very interesting.( for us).

 

In trying to appeal to a wider audience maybe they have left the serious gardener behind.
Just a thought, I stopped watching with any real interest years ago.

 

I imagine like any "practical" programmes ( Gardening,Cooking, DIY, ) the producers have to take account of young and old as well as fashionable trends and attempt to appeal to all. Practicality often misses out.
Surprising at times - particularly with the BBC as I presume it's mainly the "oldies" who pay for a TV licence these days.

 

Sorry for disagreeing, I enjoyed Frances Tophill. Completely different style of camera, music and approach.
Goodness, Monty tells us week by week and year by year the same. Even Carol in Beechgrove has been sent this year to the garden presentations. Most of you should have learned everything by now. Even I after 10 years with my own garden know what works best.
The younger generation wants to get a lifestyle not an exercise lesson.

 

I do like Frances @simone_in_wiltshire, her presentation style is very different, and as you say there is a different "vibe".

I think that's where the Gardening Club succeeds in many ways with its more "magazine approach", a garden visit, someone growing fruit and/or veg, houseplants and various garden projects.

I caught up with this week's episode this afternoon and there was an item with the houseplant lady building an indoor show "garden" at the Malvern Spring Festival. Her first attempt and she won a Gold medal.
Alan Titchmarsh was congratulating her and he was completely "natural" and so pleased for her. I was quite struck by the difference in him.

I daresay by now we oldies "should" know everything, and it's probably true to say we do know the basics and a bit more besides, but we never stop learning.
I often hear myself saying "Well, I didn't know that", often where Adam Frost is concerned .

 

As an oldie who learned to garden with Geoff H, I have to say I was really sad when he died but found Alan T to be a worthy replacement tho I did miss the way GH had different garden layouts to suit different styles of gardener and both had what some wall the common touch - an ability to talk with anyone form any background without patronising or grovelling.

Geoff H was always practical, inventive, inspirational and do-able with lots of great tips and a variety of regular expert guests for pests, diseases, houseplants etc. When AT took over it was, obviously, at short notice and very different but he too was approachable and practical. His How to be a Gardener was excellent.

Then we got MD at Berryfields, a borrowed garden so no sense of ownership or personal investment. Chris Beardshaw was a real treat in that series and clearly, with his professional record, more knowledgable about plants and design etc.

For me the main problem with MD is he appears uncomfortable with other people and has a very personal garden and style which makes him irrelevant to too many people with smaller plots, different soils and climate, beginners wanting basic info to more experienced amateurs. We don't all have access to huge terracotta pots, home grown hazel sticks, greenhouses and sheds in which to shelter plants from wet, cold winters. He'll be 70 next month. Retirement?

Adam is much more down to earth and likes people which I think is an important asset. I'm warming to Frances tho she too is a bit too specialised in her gardening interests and approach for now.

Beechgrove has changed since Jim left but still has some good pactical info and interesting visits.

 

@AnniD I agree that the last episode had its length in some parts (the dogs too often, some plants repetitive shown), but we all know that the time with MD is over and it needs a new start. The episodes with Frances were always different, and I might be wrong but this mix as it was yesterday made it much better than seeing MD.
There will never be a demand for a garden program that starts from scratch of the how-do. People use YouTube if they have questions. GW has to change to get new viewers while the old ones are fading out.

 

Sorry - but being deaf doesn't mean you can't learn to read.
I quite enjoyed G'sWorld when I saw it last night. Apart from the lady with the 'collection'. Not for me at all, but that's the point - we all like different things, and I have to disagree about older gardeners knowing everything. Just not true at all - every day you can learn something new!
Beechgrove was quite pleasant this week.

I think part of the problem with all these progs is - they're still not relatable to the average garden owner. Look at the size of Alan T's 'meadow'. Most people have a plot about the tenth of the size of that alone - if they're lucky! Designing, and getting, a small garden to look good for the bulk of the year is far harder than when you have a large site.
What happened to that garden Frances T had? I think it was hers, but I really can't remember. It was far more like what many people have to work with. I go through phases of not watching any of these shows. I certainly stopped watching G's World for long periods.

 

That's the problem though @fairygirl .

Frances' garden is more relatable but there's probably only enough of interest there for perhaps a monthly visit, and although modern programme making doesn't involve trailing cables and a large crew, it's still an upheaval especially in a garden of that size.

Personally I think the Barnsdale system (yes, I know I keep banging on about it) was the best idea. Various small gardens with different themes.
Berryfields and the short lived Greenacres carried on the same idea before Monty returned and the programme went to Longmeadow.

You could argue that Monty has a similar thing going on, but the Jewel Garden, Cottage Garden, Raised beds veg garden are not only bigger than your average but are mature and (dare I say it), somewhat overcrowded.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as guilty as the next person of shoehorning in "just one more plant", but it does make me wince a bit when I watch Monty trying to manoeuvre his way through those borders to plant something.

I suspect that once he decides to step down that will be the writing on the wall for GW, certainly in its current format, if not altogether.
As @simone_in_wiltshire points out, we are now the generation whose time has been and gone. Sniff.

 

Yes - I know what you mean about the size of her garden @AnniD , and I agree re Barnsdale, and the crowding of Longmeadow.
People look on the t'interweb for a lot of their info, but that's problematic too. After all - a lot of it is totally without any regulation or moderation etc.
For example, I could do a video or three on youTube showing how I sowed seed and grew on a plant with some magic ingredient I'd supposedly used, then showed the 'same' plants a month or two later, but those later plants could have been grown in a completely different way from the method I was showing first. How would people know?

 

The problem with telly in general is it has really dumbed down over recent memory. We used to get good scientific programmes but they tend to be few and far between now, even nature documentaries have been turned into lectures (I don't disagree with the message but often they are preaching to the converted and those that don't care, don't watch). You then have "celebrity" programmes and mindless twoddle quizzes or antique programmes and that before reality TV nonsense.
With gardening, and I can only talk about GW as I don't watch anything else, not that I watch that much, it just repeats the same basics over and over and there is very little for the average gardener. I would suggest that most on here don't learn an awful lot by watching it, perhaps new trends but not necessarily horticultural techniques. I know it's mostly because it's searching for audiences but they have the I player, which they never shut up about, which features old programmes where newbies could "binge", so why not direct people there and put some actual interesting infomation on. If I were Monty I would bored stiff parroting the same old script every week.

 

Monty is fine on veggies but, ever since the first GW from his garden, I have found his ornamental stuff claustrophobic. I'm all for dense planting that keeps weeds down but all those hedges and narrow paths make me feel squished and claustrophobic. He's also an obsessive tinkerer, modifying existing beds or re-doing where he's made mistakes such as the mound and the paradise garden. I'm sure many viewers, beginners and more experienced would like to see a project done form start to finish with regular updates

GH's approach was to have different gardens, relatable in size and ambition to most domestic gardens with different budgets and plants to suit many gardens and gardeners. He trail blazed organic gardening and the environment and loved learning from other people and sharing tips and ideas. He also wasn't afraid to make mistakes and fess up and there were follow ups on each new planting project.

AT took over GW at short notice but also managed to have new projects and bought extra land to allow for new projects whereas I always get the feeling MD's garden is designed to repel invasion, give maximum privacy and not welcome visitors.

Given the limitations of MD's garden and style I think all the visits they now include are essential to provide variety and alternative ideas and each presenter has their own way of seeing plants and associations which adds depth. Nevertheless, I find I resort to FF a lot more these days and that never happened with GH or AT or even MD when he had Chris Beardshaw as co-presenter at Berrfields.