Beechgrove Garden back on the TV soon

I quite enoyed it - Its very old school in comparison to the picture-perfect Gardeners World, but its quite nice to see George wandering along a path looking at the Daffs & saying - ooh, theres a bit of slug damage, you should put some blue pellets out - Monty would have had one of his minions replanting the entire bed before filming "Just In Case"..

 

The ordinary you and I gardener, is what the show is all about, nothing pretentious
Jim McCol the main presenter, is often out and about, ORDINARY gardens East coast Scotland, and ordinary local allotments, too chatting to people

Again he does the talking circuit usually garden clubs or WI, and it is just straight forward knowledgeable advise, not RHS, (The OH we had that and Carolyn found that a wee piece of string and an old tin can sorted the problem)
He does not use German Co £340 pound hoe's or wear Tagg Heur watches

I was going to say just like us, but along with me I suppose there are many on here who wear their Rolex or Breitling, only we do not wear them as advertising placements, we bought them ourselves to tell the time :-)

Jack McH

 

It's the first time I've seen it as well. I thought, particularly as it was supposed to be approaching a garden for the first time after the winter, they covered a lot of plants.
They mentioned Olearia, which reminded me I have one of those I bought last Summer in Galloway. I planted it and forgot about it.
It is still alive, but not as healthy as the one shown at Beechgrove.
My Plant is Olearia Combers Blue.
Does anyone have any care and maintenance into for it? - I'll start a thread as well.

 

From what i saw (only first impressions mind), the "garden" was cobbled together areas that didnt really flow together. Im not in favour of these types of gardens. What is the history behind the place ? Was it made for TV or was it a garden originally ? I much prefer what i would call a "proper" (i can see the reply's already sorry ) garden like Monty Don, Carol Klein's or Alan T. Real gardens that are essentially someone’s home and loved as such.
I also found the production standards to be very basic. Wobbly camera's, presenters looking in the wrong camera and just a bit awkward.
I will tune again, as i love anything gardening, the Sky+ is on "record series", and i hope im wrong and the program grows on me.
G

 

I've seen previous series. This first episode was a bit different in that it was a look-back at the Winter, and rather disjointed as a result (although it did enable things like the Hyacinth planting to show Doing it, Seeing what then happened and seeing the Finished Result - I wish gardening programs would do that more, film it the year before and see what you are supposed to do, plus follow on care [i.e. what will be necessary in the coming months] and finished results. I suppose I should use YouTube for that nowadays ...

So, that apart, based on previous series:

Beechgrove garden is indeed purpose built for telly. If you want something like Monty showing you round his garden then Beechgrove is not the same. What they do have is lots of trial plots, so they plant different types of a single flower, or vegetable, or trying different fertilizers, potting compost, all sorts, and thus provide very useful comparison.

They have several greenhouses, so are able to show all sorts of things in greenhouses which have been planted (in part) to easily enable filming, and show different (say) vines, or training methods, side-by-side

So more "instructive" than "recreational"

Trouble is ... those Scots are several weeks behind us, weather wise (surprised with a reputation for being "Canny" they haven't fixed that!) so often the instruction is for things which should already have been done Down South.

So if that ain't your bag then I doubt it will be for you - might be worth trying another episode or two where they are doing things that are "current" though.

 

Good Review Kristen
You are exactly right about the calendar though, Scotland being a month or six weeks behind
I am in Fife my Brother is still in home town Sunderland/Chester Le Street, I was down visiting him (my Easter visit) two weeks ago, and his garden was Green and growing plants, mine was still in full winter shut down mode, not a bud to be seen or a new blade of grass Even in the cold greenhouse
That is just 150 miles further South than I , So I expect 400 miles further must be like our summer just now

Jack McH

 

Last week when the sun was out, my garden was more akin to late April rather than late March. Still, im sure we will suffer for for. Sleet forcase for tomorrow