Have just watched gardeners’ world and feel compelled to write a post. I read somewhere recently that Joe Swift was ridiculed, for his use of a rotavator to clear his plot. Rotavating the weeds in means he will have a real problem with weeds in the near future and for much longer. I am having my first problems with bindweed this year, and am currently looking at the best way to rid the plot of weeds without having to resort to spraying.
It also annoyed me a little that he had all that earth ‘delivered’ right to his plot…i found it a lot harder than that lugging it through the house and certainly didn’t have as much help. It feels a little like Berryfields has been re-located to an allotment site in North London!
Finally on this topic, isn’t the whole point of raised beds that they can be accessed from ALL SIDES! Joe’s are triangular and diamond shaped and are huge. Having raised beds makes absolutely no sense at all if they are going to be trampled all over and the soil compacted (by his children in the show).
I watch Gardeners’ World for exemplar practice, and usually really enjoy the parts about growing food. Carol and Monty (having a rest!) never disappoint. Monty’s own garden shows that….the perfect example.
In my own garden the ‘Spring Leaves’ above have been planted out and are growing well. The snails love them but the plants are growing slowly. I’ll post on them again when we start eating them, which should be within a couple of weeks…
Tags: gardeners' world, grow your own, joe swift allotment, mixed baby leaves
April 25th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I haven’t seen the show but read a very similar complaint to yours in the forum on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com and I totally agree with both of you, surely the point of showing us what they are doing is to demonstrate the best approach. Still I am looking forward to his whole plot being completely smothered in bindweed
April 26th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Hi Vegmonkey, I’ve tagged you on my blog. It’s kind of a game. Hope you don’t mind. Want to play?
The salad is looking fantastic, I planted some seed outside last week and my first seedlings are pushing through, bring on summer…
April 27th, 2008 at 2:54 am
I haven’t seen this either, but it sounds kind of amusing.
Good luck with your own bindweed! I’ve got it bad here, and it’s just starting to come up for the season. My neighbors have given up and say “at least it looks pretty on the fences” (which is does, especially since our fences are all ugly), so I’ve probably got no chance of ever eradicating it, but I pull it up just the same.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Terrible really, isn’t it…who would have thought that TV could be so unrealistic and manufactured these days. Still, the producers probably thought anything would appeal more to ‘amateur’ gardeners than watching ‘Ol Joe walking around wondering where to deposit his latest wheel barrow full of money. Do they actually do any real gardening these days or is it left to the (until recently) unseen backroom staff like Bea (Berryfields) to dig the borders etc. Also… don’t get me started on the disappearance of Monty. Now, being a bit of a conspiracy theorist, I find the whole situation suspicious and it has already been the subject of many discussions with ’she who must be obeyed’. What has really happened to him? Plus I have my doubts about Carol as even a temporary ‘new’ leader…is she in on it?
April 27th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Natalie - I’ll get around to taht soon, been tagged before, and now need to do something about it! I fear that a lot of the blogs i read have already been tagged but there’s no harm in trying.
David - Exactly! Either he has been abducted or fired! I did read that he was really ill after doing his ‘around the world in 80 gardens,’ and was ordered to have time off. Maybe this is it. Carol can only do her best i suppose, but she definately didn’t look comfortable.
Jenny - You are right, it does look nice - i’m considering some sort of blanket organic weedkiller over the winter?!
April 27th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Oh I wish I’d seen this. I wonder why he designed diamod shaped beds, was it just aesthetics? And, last question, how do you keep the snails off - do you just pick them off?
April 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Bindweed R US - i have it too. Nightmare. I try not to use pesticides and over the last 3 years, I have just dug and dug and dug…! It’s gotten rid of the majority of it to be honest, and it used to be on one of my 30ft flower beds, so I found digging the best option! And still do….
On Gardeners World - I Sky+ it, and found myself this Sunday fast forwarding most of it. I’m quite glad that MD has disappeared for a bit, as a non MD lover I find him almost condesending and quite smug (sorry for you MD lovers). Bring back Alan..!!
Also, my raised beds are massive…my dad got a bit carried away, and we cannot reach the middle of them, but if GW had said that you needed to reach the middle, then my dad would have made sure they were not that big. Joe swift probably gets his lackys to do that fluffing of the soil when he’s gone.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I feel like i’ve created a garden rant blog - although we are quirt good at it!
Mrs Be - i pick them off and hurl them against the wall…i feel a snail killing post coming on…
April 29th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Hi vegmonkey. I’ve also tagged you.
I sure am glad that the iplayer is now up and running. I haven’t had a tv for about 5 years. Gardener’s World is now my favourite show.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Sounds very theraputic vegmonkey!
April 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I’m such a novice that I wouldn’t know bindweed as a seedling… I have to wait until my veg grows big enough to tell if it’s a weed or not!
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for your comment on the contents of my cold frame. Compliments were much appreciated!
April 29th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Hiya,
I’ve never actually tried this but someone once told me that if you soak a glove in Roundup then wipe it over the bindweed leaves it kills the whole thing, rather than snapping it off and making a new sprout. Depends how much of an ecomentalist you are whether you wanna do this to yer veg patch, I guess its more for on flower beds. As I say I’ve never tried it so it might be cobblers!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Cheers Big Al - this might have to be a plan for later in the year when things have calmed down a little…or maybe something similar but organic. Ecover might work well? How’s things your end?
May 1st, 2008 at 2:24 am
Different topic entirely: you’re tagged!
May 1st, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Well, all this rotavating of weeds and trampling ofearth would never happen on Radio 4!
Long live ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’!
Esther Montgomery
ESTHER IN THE GARDEN
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:11 am
Oh, walking on raised bed soil in my yard is a no no too. Everyone knows to stay off the soil and walk around. Even the Dogs.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Esther - indeed it wouldn’t, there’s a lot to be said for the old school gardening methods! I think when you try to get all fancy rather than back to basics, you actually defeat the point of what you originally set out to do, in the name of aesthetics…and that was the reason for my post really..i felt like Joe was trying too hard maybe. KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Curtis - Indeed! It is the unwritten rule!