The Edible Garden - BBC2 @ 20.00pm

[Snadger]

Ah but at 27p a packet, Snadge - would that be such a hardship?

I only mentioned it for information purposes cos my neighbour did it last year.

27p is a bit expensive for me, I'd rather grow Netto's named varieties at 19p a packet!

[DavidM31]

I thought it was a missed opportunity,like others have posted the cine film clips were annoying and there was not enough actual factual content.
The producers could have made a much better job if they had taken the trouble to research what vegetable growers wanted to see, and not wasted so much time with all the flaffing around.
However that said I will watch it again next week, as any gardening program is of interest,although Gardeners World is still off my viewing list,it has become so dull.

[shirlthegirl43]

To be honest the best bit was her being a right twit about the chooks wings being clipped - like she expected them to bleed everywhere! She annoyed me to the point I turned over.

Bring back Alan Titchmarsh showing me how to pot things on please

[weekendwellies]

As an encouragement to a normal [?] family to grow some veg that wouldn't spoil the look of a flowery garden, it did well.

My opinion is that was the target market so it achieved its aim.

The producers could have made a much better job if they had taken the trouble to research what vegetable growers wanted to see,

I dont think it was aimed at serious or even novice veg growers, just the people that like their flower garden, don't want to do the whole allotment thing but would like to have a few food plants growing in amongst their flowers and shrubs.
As others have said Geoff Hamilton did it much better and imparted some decent information too.

[Pumpy]

Did anyone else spot the tattooo on her left arm? It looks like a smiley face? Just like this:

[marigold007]

She also has been doing a lot of talking about things like sustainable gardening and Permiculture here and on Gardeners' World lately. These are slightly "hippyish" concepts being brought into the main stream. I myself wouldn't dismiss her as Gardeners' Light, but more perhaps as Gardeners' Future. I'm totally in awe of Mrs. Fowler.

[Alison]

I only watched last weeks yesterday and to be honest I didn't mind it at all. Didn't learn anything in particular but it was a nice wander through her garden. Did wonder how often she bothered picking her eggs up though as she seemed to find about 5 eggs in the box when she looked, including the double yolker

[raine]

I think i like it-especially the forest garden-will give it a go again.

[Alison]

I think i like it-especially the forest garden-will give it a go again.

Wasn't the forest garden on GW? Watched both last night so could be confuddled.

[zazen999]

I was stuck in a hotel and watched it [I don't watch much TV so usually rant at the hotel TV for hours until I work out how to get the radio on].

Anyhow - I quite enjoyed it. What's wrong with a little pleasant wander round the garden, some examples of how and where to grow veg in amongst the flowers [esp in a small garden]; so that it doesn't look like a small allotment; and a few ideas? Surely the idea is to get people interested and then leave them to go and do their own research on how exactly to grow these things?

It's only 6 x 30 minute episodes. you can only show a flavour in that time. Now, if the BBC could have a follow up show that just looks at seasonal grow your own; then I'd expect much more in depth information and guidance.

Plus I'm a fan of old style photography so anything that simulates it I find quite pleasant.

[digthatchick]

From an early age Alys Fowler was smitten by her mother’s gardening talents and degree of self-sufficiency it afforded the family. After leaving school in 1996 Fowler studied at the Royal Horticultural Society and the world renowned Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.
Even while studying in the epicentre of the British Gardening Establishment, it was clear Fowler had an early interest in loosening the confines of contemporary landscape gardening to include a more organic and accessible aesthetic. Fowler’s superiors were quick to recognise her talent and passion. In 1998 she was awarded a Smithsonian Scholarship to study at the New York Botanical Gardens based in the famous Bronx.
Fowler moved to New York in 1998 to complete her apprenticeship. Driven by the ultra urban environment she was forced to find new ways of experiencing and creating green space.

Fowler maximised her apartment’s fire escape by growing plants and vegetables, and she quickly found a community making gardens in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Exposure to their collective ability to create beautiful and inviting gardens out of objects found in New York’s streets and dumpsters chimed with her existing interest in accessible gardening.
This became a highly influential period of her training, and spawned the idea for her first book in 2007, The Thrifty Gardener.
Fowler returned to the UK in 1999 .

Following her interest in grass-roots environmental work she attended the University College London to complete a Masters in Society, Science and the Environment.
Continuing her passion to fuse traditional gardening with modern eco-friendly culture, Fowler focused her work at this time on the benefits allotments bring to the environment and those who work on them.

... not bad for an inept person that doesn't know what's what ?

[BFG]

She's not as smug/annoying/poncy as Toby (any one else think he looked a bit green when he had to plug her new series on GW?), but still annoys me a bit. It's like she's talking to 5 year olds most of time.

[TonyF]

She also has been doing a lot of talking about things like sustainable gardening and Permiculture here and on Gardeners' World lately. These are slightly "hippyish" concepts being brought into the main stream. I myself wouldn't dismiss her as Gardeners' Light, but more perhaps as Gardeners' Future. I'm totally in awe of Mrs. Fowler.

But that's the point, this isn't anything new, some of us and some better gardeners than her, better communicators and writers, have been doing exactly the same thing for years and we don't need to be patronised about it - it's the new 'gardens are cool' set that this is aimed at, not gardeners per se.

[Littlemouse]

It is true that the information is all out there in books but there are some people out there, including myself, who find it difficult to pick up or retain information / learn techniques just by reading about it.

I like to watch how others actually do things. I want to see the very basics - the 'from scratch' stuff. I want to see it all as if I'm standing at the gardener's side.

And that's why I was disappointed with the programme. (Plus, I'm sure the trails for the programme gave the impression that it was a gardening category programme and not a 'lifestyle' show because others also feel disappointed).

[TonyF]

... not bad for an inept person that doesn't know what's what ?

And that's her publicity shot from where? Blurb from her book or online somewhere, looks like an overblown CV.

I know of at least 4 other garden writers who have heavily featured the Bronx gardens in their publications some of which pre-date Alys so it's nothing new at all.

The difference now is lifestyle and not gardening for the sake of gardening, perhaps that comes later in life when the fadists and trendy 'hippy' (she said that 3 times in the programme the other evening) view of the world have faded away and have left the real gardeners to get on with things - again.

I think she is a good gardener inder all the faff and sillyness but the BBC isn't interested in gardening any more and the fact EG and GW are 'lifestyle' programmes seems to sum it all up.