Rachel de Tame and cottage gardens

[TonyF]

Did anybody else watch the GW Special last evening, about 'cottage gardens'?

Some bloody big cottages and park sized gardens and the real cottage gardens were just dismissed I felt for the grand scale stuff.

At least the long-ignored Marjery Fish (I have all six of her books) got a well deserved mention as did William Robertson.

And the programme could have been substantially shorter without le de Tame wandering round looking atherial - do you think she's Nigella's long lost younger sister?

[Starchild]

"Cottage" gardening is a style, just like "formal" garden, more than an actual thing.

[zazen999]

Yup - it was a complete waste of time in my opinion.

No start, middle, end. No conclusion. Just an excuse for RDT to wander about and visit gardens.

They could have just shortened it to the 2 you mentioned above, and made it at most a 30 minutes special on the history of cottage gardens; as the global warming stuff is nonsense. I don't mean it isn't happening, but you can't predict it and plants will adapt.

[BarleySugar]

OH said she reminded him of Nigella! I felt the global warming stuff was a waste of time too. I don't expect any garden I plant now to be the same in 5 years time, let alone 50, when probably I won't be around anymore, and the garden won't be either. The most interesting bit for me was the woman who was using her garden in the traditional way, to feed her family.

[Flummery]

Could be her older sister ?
REAL cottage gardens combone food and ornamentals in a wonderful way. My great aunt ans uncle lived in a propper country cottage in Cheshire - their garden was a joy for a child to wander in. Fruit bushes dotted around anywhere there was the space. Exotic looking flowering plants - looking back they were probably hollyhocks and delphiniums but I'd never seen them before. Not massive, but massively exciting.

Not like last night!

[TonyF]

"Cottage" gardening is a style, just like "formal" garden, more than an actual thing.

I understand that Starchild but all the contributors talking about the history were white, middle/upper class and well educated. Where were the Asian, European or Afro-Carribean cottage gardens in all this, it's not only the Brits that do this - just the Brits that make it a 'design concept'. Very few ordinary people - except the women who was trying to be self-sufficient of course - and the rest were mainly well-heeled with large budgets and parks as gardens, as RdT is.

I'm not knocking the fact they have the money to do it, that's what we've used and continue to use our retirment funds for, but it's the fact that another artisanal idea is being hijacked for the glossy books and tele programmes. When the original idea of the cottage garden/potager was self sufficiency and growing to heal and eat, not a ponsy park to be featured in expensive books and tele programmes and constantly harping on about texture, structure and the like.

And if you follow the ideas/ideals of cottage gardens, which is what we're doing in here most of the time, to me the Dan Pearson garden and the futuristic garden was just intellectual masturbation.

[PAULW]

Once the force feeding of global warming started I turned the program off.

[TonyF]

Could be her older sister ?
REAL cottage gardens combone food and ornamentals in a wonderful way. My great aunt ans uncle lived in a propper country cottage in Cheshire - their garden was a joy for a child to wander in. Fruit bushes dotted around anywhere there was the space. Exotic looking flowering plants - looking back they were probably hollyhocks and delphiniums but I'd never seen them before. Not massive, but massively exciting.

Not like last night!

Think our age is showing Flummers, tho you were fortunate, my family hated gardening with a vengence or lived in flats with no gardens so for me it was 'outside influences' with real cottage gardens that started me off.

[Headfry]

It was an 'odd' program. I thought it might end with some sound advice on keeping a traditional cottage going within climate change - but NO.
You are so right Barley Sugar, 5 years is a long time let alone 50 years.
Have to say not sure if the UK will get hotter and hotter. How about the odd 3 red hot days between weeks of wind and heavy rain! summer gales and monsoons?
There seems to be a huge push to grow med type plants....why?
Why then, when we spend time and effort to grow non native plants should we not try to put in the same effort to keep our cottage garden flowers going? sorry just a thought really.

[Mikey]

I can't watch anything with RDT in it, she should stay in picture form only, adding words just confuses the issue and makes her far less alluring.