BBC | Gardeners' World

WHAT A WEEK!

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:15:00 +0000

If anyone ever says to me again that making gardening programmes must be all sitting in deckchairs and just watching presenters gardening - I will happily bury them amongst the spring bulbs that I haven't yet had time to plant!

]]>The week started on Sunday with a very pleasant train journey down to Cornwall with a small bottle of red wine and a good novel to pass the time. And that's been the only bit of peace and quiet I've had this week!

And then Gardener of the Decade happened. Cables, cameras, Rachel, Joe, contestants, tools and plants all mingled together and somehow, amongst the mayhem of various competition rounds, we managed to make a programme and have a lot of fun in the glorious setting of the Eden Project. Previous winners of Gardener of the Year gardened furiously through gruelling tasks; they propagated, named pest and diseases and literally dug for victory over two whole days - only one of them was eventually crowned 'Gardener of the Decade'. The results will be on screen later in the year.

Then, for me, it was straight into a car on Wednesday night heading for Stratford and Berryfields to be on location for 7 am to meet the crew and to make two episodes of Gardeners' World Top Tips, a new daytime programme aimed at beginners to gardening. Carol was on form as her programmes are about a subject she loves, growing food. And it was so like Carol to arrive on set with a bucket full of potatoes that she'd grown at home and wanted to harvest on screen! So we rattled through growing tomatoes, potatoes, climbing French beans, lettuce, onions and even a few courgettes and, along with a few magic moments from Carol, managed to complete the programmes before it got dark!

Luckily for me, I'm in the office today but cranking myself up for the making of another six programmes next week with Rachel and Joe.

Anyone for a bit of bulb planting?

The world of television gardening

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:09:54 +0000

Echoing Rosemary's blog of last week I can say that I am thrilled that Toby is to be our new lead presenter.

What is so wonderful about Gardeners' World is that, from time to time, the programme is refreshed by a new face with a new approach to gardening. I never got to work with Geoff, but worked with Alan and Monty - both fantastic and experienced gardeners, but with such different personalities. Now, I'm sure Toby will have his own individual approach to gardening. So it's going to be so exciting for us on the programme working with him and I'm really looking forward to it.

]]>It's also a bit of a change for me for a few weeks as I get to work on Gardener of the Decade which is a 'champion of champions' challenge for former Gardener of the Year winners! It all looks like a lot of fun at the moment as we put the finishing touches to the challenges and, of course, they've got to have quite a degree of difficulty as our former winners are all formidable gardeners. I'm looking forward to meeting them when we film in a few weeks and you will be able to see the results later on in the year!

In the meantime, enjoy the Gardeners' World special programmes coming up and Gardeners' World will be returning to half hour programmes with Toby on the 12th September.

The doyenne of vegetables

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:01:23 +0000

Next week we are filming with Joy Larkcom at Berryfields. She has appeared on Gardeners' World before, many years ago, with Geoff Hamilton. She is a heroine of mine, Alys Fowler and Claire Johnson and we are all really looking forward to her just being in our garden at Berryfields.

]]>Not everyone, though, knows who she is. Joy is THE person who is responsible for the cut and come again salads we now take for granted in the supermarkets. She is the lady who brought oriental vegetables into our gardens and onto our plates. When you pick up a book by Joy you know that everything has been personally and thoroughly researched. I know that at Berryfields, her books are very well thumbed by all of us and particularly Alys.

I had the privilege of filming with Joy a few years ago for a Gardeners' World Special at her home in Southern Ireland. She is still researching and still growing fruit and vegetables in a very extreme situation where the garden is constantly buffeted by wind that whips off the sea - and growing them very successfully. What always delights me about most people in the world of gardening is that, invariably, they are modest, self-effacing and extraordinarily generous with their time and information. Joy is no exception and I came away from that filming day with a sense of privilege that I had met her.

But when you look up 'Joy Larkcom' on the internet, you get a list of her books and information about what she has done but there is no way that you can get a sense of who she is and what she is like as a person at all. The programme that Joy features in transmits on the 8th August and I sincerely hope you enjoy it and get a better understanding of who she is - do come back and tell us what you think.

Summer's gone before it's started

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:46:27 +0000

Because I spend so much of my life driving up and down motorways and back and forth to Berryfields, I often use that time getting lost in ideas and plans for the programme. Coming back from Berryfields last night after two long days filming, it suddenly struck me that, in my head, I was living in August and I was thinking and planning the programmes for then. In reality, it is the middle of June. How much of our lives on this programme is lived in the future? Producing Gardeners' World is very much about now, this week, next month and even next year all at the same time. Time begins to race away and before you know it, another whole year has gone by.

]]>But that is the way that gardeners think - we constantly plan in our heads what the garden is going to look like if we plant these seeds, this rose, that shrub. We plan for years ahead when we plant trees. We can already taste our home-grown vegetables when we sow the seeds and always THIS year, everything is going to be glorious and perfect.

And so it is with Gardeners' World. And we have certainly planned some great programmes over the next few weeks when we will have guests working on projects at Berryfields. We'll also be featuring the gardens of designers, keen gardeners and people who have a real passion for plants over those hour-long summer programmes. So I'm excited about how those programmes are going to turn out - sometimes it's like waiting for a bud to burst when you don't quite know how it's going to look!

On my drive home it struck me that this Saturday is midsummer's night. Where has the year gone? It's the middle of summer and before long, I'll have planned away the rest of the year! Those thoughts have made me determined that this weekend when I get home, I'm going to live a little bit in the now, appreciate the garden whatever way it looks and most of all, spend lots of time in the present tense with my family.

Berryfields, Berkshire and busman's holidays

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:08:47 +0000

Last week was my first week filming back at Berryfields in my role as producer of Gardeners' World since last year. I must admit, even though I know the garden so well, it changes so rapidly from one week to the next. Especially when plants seem to grow a foot a week, when your back is turned at this time of year. I love to grab a cup of tea at the beginning of the day and have a wander around while the cameras are setting up. I enjoy the comparison of the pace of growth between plants that I grow in my own small garden in Berkshire and those that are grown a hundred miles away in Warwickshire. Over my many years on Gardeners' World being based in Birmingham and gardening at home in Reading, I have worked out that, at the beginning of the year, there is about two weeks difference and eventually it all catches up towards the end of June.

]]>After a very busy week familiarising myself with and planning the next two programmes and insert films with the Gardeners' World team, I hot footed it down the M40 on Friday to home, where I off-loaded my overnight bag, grabbed a glass of wine and wandered round my own garden to see the week's progress. It's really difficult, as a passionate gardener, leaving your garden to the elements for the week and not being able to get out there on a daily basis but it seems to survive despite neglect from me, frequent visits by at least a dozen of various neighbours cats and a couple of visits a week by my two granddaughters and my daughter's Japanese Akita. (a very large dog who has twice chewed to bits my Cercis Forest Pansy - it's still living - just!) Despite my garden having a life without me, I have roses in flower in mid May. My climbing 'Ena Harkness' has at least two blooms fully open. The Alchemist is just about to pop along with my favourite rose for toughness and health - 'Buff Beauty'. I have at least 100 Alliums in flower, Iris sibirica is looking dreamy, the hardy geraniums are just beginning to flower, Cirsium rivulare and Knautia macedonica are in bud but (horror of horrors) the blasted slugs have eaten my lettuce seedlings again. I'm afraid, like Rosemary Edwards, I'll be boiling up the garlic and using the Una Dunnett method to see if that works.

Saturday morning I was on the 5.30am train to London to meet Rachel de Thame to help her plant up her Chelsea garden. The Urban gardens have to really build and plant quickly and it was a bit of a frantic dash to make the deadline which involved an overnight stay on Rachel's sofa on the Saturday night. I also phoned a friend, Phil McCann, (fellow show-garden planter of Gardeners' World Live fame, Gardeners' World team member and horticulturalist extraordinaire) to help on the Sunday. We made it - just - by flood-light on the Sunday night! Then it was home again by midnight and then up again early on the Monday morning for a hair wash (brilliant for getting the mud from under the finger nails) and into some respectable clothes for the Chelsea press day. Rachel was looking ever so stylish in a white linen dress and coat number until she revealed her hands which were totally ingrained with dirt that she was just unable to scrub off! We were all so delighted for her that she won a Silver Medal on the world-class gardening stage but I'm not sure I can take many 16 hour days as my whole body aches, my fingers are sore and I have cuts on my arms I don't remember getting!

Back in my own garden I managed to prick out some seedlings, potted on a few plants, sowed more lettuce and concocted the garlic mixture leaving my husband with strict instructions on how to water with it before slinging my bag in the back of the car and coming up the M40 again to Birmingham. We're not filming this week so it gives us all a bit of planning time for future programmes but I'm looking forward to our next programme on Gardening in a Changing Climate as we've got some really good films to show, including one from Matthew Wilson, as well as some excellent gardening items from Carol, Joe and Alys at Berryfields.