Is a lot of "gardening" a rip off?

[Pulcinella]

I love Beechgrove, very down-to-earth and practical.
Scotch & Wry did a lovely tribute. Beechgrove had a few older programmes on their YouTube channel.

First appreciated when I lived in Aberdeen, many years ago, but equally relevant now I'm in York, our growing season being more like theirs than like Monty's.
And we used to enjoy watching George and Jim prune things to within an inch of their lives, a tradition that still goes on.

[AuntDaisy]

First appreciated when I lived in Aberdeen, many years ago, but equally relevant now I'm in York, our growing season being more like theirs than like Monty's.
And we used to enjoy watching George and Jim prune things to within an inch of their lives, a tradition that still goes on.

Yes, George's pruning is very entertaining - poor plants, but it works.
There's a DVD set available - 24 episodes from 2010, I wish there were more.

Monty's tomatoes depress me - they're so much further forward than mine are; and they're in an enormous greenhouse (vs. our small one made from recycled windows.)
I like Frances Tophill's garden, I wish they'd show more of it on Gardener's World.

[oddoneout]

Not a rip-off but the way that gardening is shown by people like Monty Don is a fantasy. It presents in a way that glosses over the huge amount of hard work involved in maintaing an enormous garden to the standard we are shown and we are led to believe he does all by himself since no one else is ever shown working and no credit is ever given except by MD's occasional use of the pronoun 'we'. I do not doubt his gardening knowledge and skill but I much prefer the realism of Beechgrove and its relatively modest production.

I have never liked Monty Don, but I know he has a considerable following and as it is better that folk garden than not, if he inspires them to do so then fair enough. Yes, it is all an illusion, but that comes down to whether or not the producers of such programmes are honest about the work involved - the Joe Swift allotment series years ago was very poor in that respect and must have misled/discouraged many who tried to emulate his example.
Something that gives me a certain amount of naughty pleasure is looking at the seedlings MD has raised "himself" and thinking "well they are pretty poor, mine are much better than that".

[Dave2002]

I assume this is the Beechgrove which was mentioned earlier in this thread: https://www.beechgrove.co.uk/Watch-Beechgrove

I'd not heard of it before.

[AuntDaisy]

I assume this is the Beechgrove which was mentioned earlier in this thread: https://www.beechgrove.co.uk/Watch-Beechgrove
I'd not heard of it before.

In recent years, Beechgrove has been repeated before Friday's Gardener's World on BBC2.
It's usually on Thursday's on BBC Scotland - 8pm tonight.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020cvk

There was also a "Grow It" radio programme on BBC Scotland that often featured Beechgrove. "Out of Doors" sometimes comes from the Beechgrove garden, although it's not a gardening programme.

[oddoneout]

In recent years, Beechgrove has been repeated before Friday's Gardener's World on BBC2.
It's usually on Thursday's on BBC Scotland - 8pm tonight.

It's only recently it's been on immediately before GW, but it has been on in the mornings for many years. The new spot means I get to watch it, which is a bonus, especially if I don't feel like dodging round the MD bits of GW (bit like listening to the afternoon schedule of R3...), and it's interesting to see how different the weather can be, and the effect it has on the stage their plants/gardens are at. A recent programme mentioned how dry things were, while those of us south of the border were contemplating the growth of webbed feet rather than plants.

[smittims]

One of my neighbours has spent many months re-doing his back (one can hardly call it a 'garden') part of which I can see from one of my windwdows. Eventually he called in contractors to do it; I be interested to know how much he's paid, but I suspect a 'rip-off' there.

t. Half of it is paved , with not a plant in sight, so I wondered what he was planning for the remaing plot at the bottom. The answer - a stretch of plastic 'grass' nicely rolled out, and a dart board fixed to the garage wall. His next-door neighbour is a traditional, with a well-divided garden in sectors: lawn, veg, fruit , flowers, compost, greenhouse. What he must think of neighbour 1 defies imagination.

[Old Grumpy]

One of my neighbours has spent many months re-doing his back (one can hardly call it a 'garden') part of which I can see from one of my windwdows. Eventually he called in contractors to do it; I be interested to know how much he's paid, but I suspect a 'rip-off' there.

t. Half of it is paved , with not a plant in sight, so I wondered what he was planning for the remaing plot at the bottom. The answer - a stretch of plastic 'grass' nicely rolled out, and a dart board fixed to the garage wall. His next-door neighbour is a traditional, with a well-divided garden in sectors: lawn, veg, fruit , flowers, compost, greenhouse. What he must think of neighbour 1 defies imagination.

Well at least the neighbour can't complain about him exporting clover