A Gentle Antidote to Real Life - Why I Love Gardeners' World
Stuart Jeffries: There is something almost tear-inducingly wonderful ... that someone cares about how my pansies and flowering camomile plants are growing.
Gardeners' World, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Friday, is currently running a hanging basket campaign. If you go to the website, you can fill in a form letting Monty Don and the rest of the team know how your hanging baskets are growing, what combination you've planted and your overall experiences.
There is something almost tear-inducingly wonderful about the thought that someone cares about how my pansies and flowering chamomile plants are growing (marvelously, thanks). Better yet, that Monty, Carol Klein and the other one (Joe? Chris?) are striving to make this land green and pleasant at a time when all we read about is swaggering rats taking over because of two-weekly refuse collections and illiterate roughnecks who wouldn't know a seed catalog if it shanked them in the prison shower block.
For four decades, Gardeners' World has been a hardy perennial, a gentle antidote to reality. Visually too, it has been as restful on the eye as a roomful of Monets. It's the hidden gem of the Friday schedules, a moment of peace before the boozers return from the pub demanding the sort of stuff you can fall asleep to while drunk.
Old clips show this charm clearly. There's Percy Thrower - in a tie! - proudly showing off his espaliered plums (just grow up). Tip: the net keeps blackbirds off your succulent Victorias. There's Peter Seabrook - in a tie! - sewing Alyssum Wonderland seeds. Tip: wear a sensible V-neck jumper over that tie so you don't dirty it with potting compost. There's Geoff Hamilton - tireless! radical! - building a water feature. Tip: get an electrician to wire in the pump, or you'll probably kill yourself.
Once, in the 70s, presenter Geoffrey Smith said: "It's a leisurely business dead-heading roses." And so it should be, especially as a rustic riposte to our 24/7 working world.
The BBC press office propose the delightful notion that, as with Dr Who or James Bond, everybody has their favorite Gardeners' World presenter. I love this: Percy Thrower as Sean Connery/William Hartnell, Alan Titchmarsh as Roger Moore/Sylvester McCoy, Monty as Daniel Craig/David Tennant. You may think this is absurd, but it isn't: Gardeners' World means more to some of us than a jelly-baby-eating time traveler or 007. We just don't go on about it.
Now, back to that hanging basket questionnaire.
There is something almost tear-inducingly wonderful about the thought that someone cares about how my pansies and flowering chamomile plants are growing (marvelously, thanks). Better yet, that Monty, Carol Klein and the other one (Joe? Chris?) are striving to make this land green and pleasant at a time when all we read about is swaggering rats taking over because of two-weekly refuse collections and illiterate roughnecks who wouldn't know a seed catalog if it shanked them in the prison shower block.
For four decades, Gardeners' World has been a hardy perennial, a gentle antidote to reality. Visually too, it has been as restful on the eye as a roomful of Monets. It's the hidden gem of the Friday schedules, a moment of peace before the boozers return from the pub demanding the sort of stuff you can fall asleep to while drunk.
Old clips show this charm clearly. There's Percy Thrower - in a tie! - proudly showing off his espaliered plums (just grow up). Tip: the net keeps blackbirds off your succulent Victorias. There's Peter Seabrook - in a tie! - sewing Alyssum Wonderland seeds. Tip: wear a sensible V-neck jumper over that tie so you don't dirty it with potting compost. There's Geoff Hamilton - tireless! radical! - building a water feature. Tip: get an electrician to wire in the pump, or you'll probably kill yourself.
Once, in the 70s, presenter Geoffrey Smith said: "It's a leisurely business dead-heading roses." And so it should be, especially as a rustic riposte to our 24/7 working world.
The BBC press office propose the delightful notion that, as with Dr Who or James Bond, everybody has their favorite Gardeners' World presenter. I love this: Percy Thrower as Sean Connery/William Hartnell, Alan Titchmarsh as Roger Moore/Sylvester McCoy, Monty as Daniel Craig/David Tennant. You may think this is absurd, but it isn't: Gardeners' World means more to some of us than a jelly-baby-eating time traveler or 007. We just don't go on about it.
Now, back to that hanging basket questionnaire.
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