Your favourite gardener

[andrewo]

I have been watching Christine's Garden and Alan Titchmarsh's Gardening Year, both ended this week. I liked the fore but the Gardening Year seemed a little hollow, flat, can't put my finger on it but I wasn't satisfied. I liked Christine's Garden because of the relationship she had with her neighbour, Reg, this made me chuckle. However, it wasn't specific or helpful. So, a few nights a go I lay in bed, raging insomnia, and wondered who was my favourite gardener. Is it:
1. Alan Titchmarsh
2. Sarah Raven
3. Monty Don
4. Bob Flowerdew
5. Rachel de Thame
6. Geoff Hamilton (he may be dead but his legacy lives on).
And you know I felt myself leaning towards Don and Hamilton, maybe because they are so practical and hands on, I felt I have learnt more from them or maybe it's the legacy of watching Percy Thrower in the Blue Peter garden.

Whose your favourite gardener?

I know I will have missed some of them but I would be interested in hearing about your favourite gardening guru.

Andrewo

[Jaxom]

I have come to gardening rather late so have votes for who I know and enjoy. Geoff Hamilton is someone I would have liked to have watched as many mourn his passing after many years.
Jax

[Geordie]

Anybody remember Adam?

[Nicos]

Can we only vote for one then?? I bet Lesley Jay is wondering where Hugh FW is!!!

[Lesley Jay]

Very funny Nicos!!! Actually I voted for Alan. I used to love Gardeners World when it came from his own garden. That programme hasn't been the same since. Where is Diarmund?

[andrewo]

Come on

I could only put ten down in the poll! Now Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, he's great but he's not really a gardener, he lives a self sufficiency lifestyle, which I'm all for but he doesn't just do gardening (and that was a pre-requisite for this poll) and come on Diarmuid McGavin, Diarmuid McGavin, please, someone pass me a shovel so I can plant him somewhere....

Andrewo

[sewer rat]

Diarmuid

Couldn't agree more with you andrewo - could it be that he's just eye candy for our LJ - if we're voting for eye candy then the wittering Rachel D T gets my vote. Other than that, has to be Mr Titchmarsh, though i also thought The Gardening Year was rather disappointing
Rat

[Shortie]

Agreed on the Dairmuid front... he's more into architecture (usually horrifically concrete) than gardening from my point of view. Alan gets my vote hands down, probably as (like Jaxom) I'm relatively new to gardening and Alan's eveywhere to be seen/known.

I do quite like Bob Flowerdew though, just don't know enough about him...

Shortie

[Nicos]

you can borrow my new shovel..continental type..rounded and easy to scoop and tip!!
OK -sorry...I think if you can truely live off the land then you must have got it right so I would choose Hugh FW if he were on the list!
Geoff- bless his sole- got us all to thinking that there was more to life than every thing in straight rows and actually sowed the seed about the environment.
Bob gave us companion planting....to this day , no-one to my knowledge has surpassed his experience.
Alan has made gardening fun and made us all think we can have a go and succeed.
Forget about eye-candy....what we produce and our self-esteem is more important after all the hard work we put in! ... who do you think I should vote for then???

[andrewo]

Monty Don

I must admit I'm a bit of a Monty Don fan, loved Geoff Hamilton because he always showed you how to make something for nothing, liked Alan Titchmarsh on Gardners World but haven't liked his work in the last two series he did. Thought those early shows he did after world about gardening were really good, can't remember the name, the one where he goes behind a tree as boy and emerges as a man in the credits.

Like Monty Don because he is a man who has suffered depression and used gardening as a way to bring him out the other side - he pushes gardening to disparate groups, kids gone wrong etc and shows the benefits gardening can have on health and mental well being. Also the guy just loves compost and plants.

I must admit that Rachel de Thame was eye candy but I was getting hard pushed to think of high profile gardeners then, sure there's Carol Klein (but doesn't she just irritate you?) and Jekka McVicar (she's really a herb guru). It seems we do not have a glut of famous female gardeners but the industry has built up some mighty giants, Jekel anyone?

Andrewo

[Nicos]

that one with the dress sense bypass just does me in! Can't remember her name and I doubt that I ever will, nor has anything she has said gone in,cos all I can think of is " get that horrible courderoy coat off and get some decent gardening clothes woman!"

[andrewo]

That sounds like....

That sounds horribly like Sarah Raven...oh dear...oh dear. No what you mean but she is a good veg gardener. Have you seen her site:
http://www.thecuttinggarden.com/html/home.asp

A bit pompous and expensive in parts but interesting.

Andrewo

[Jaxom]

I like Alan T because he always looks after the pennies or at least comes over that way. He says things like "look after your tools and your grandchildren will be able to use them or a few pennies of seed and you get all this wonderful colour" etc
The current GW presenters think we have deep unending purses to buy wildflower turf at £25 a pop and cash just sitting around to buy expensive planters and paper bags for Christmas doorways. Some times I watch GW and nearly choke to death.
Jax

[Berr]

What about the charming Carole Klein? Could anybody be more earnest, more genuinely in love with plants than she? No affectation, AND you can't say she isn't knowledgeable.She'd get my vote, no question!

[Lesley Jay]

Diarmund is passionate about the gardens he designs. Hugh is passionate about living a self sufficient life style. Alan is a gardener and one that we can all follow.