The veg growing movement gains momentum

[Professor Peabody]

Today on the BBC London news web pages there is an article about British Waterways preparing the banks of the canals in London for veg growing as part of Uncle Boris's plan for public bodies to give up land so people can grow their own food. So I assume in a couple of years time London will be covered in a sea of cabbages, runner beans and toms!

[Plot17B]

My old professor (in my long student days) would sit in meetings and presentations and ask questions. Sometimes "stupid" questions. More often though very sharp and pertinent ones, but sometimes "stupid" ones. And the response around the room was along the lines of "haha, how can he not know that". "What an idiot". "Oh why did he get the chair here...!").

Calmly he'd turn to the mockers and say "If i don't understand what's said, I bet there's another dozen people in the room who also don't understand. It's just that I'm not ashamed to ask". And quite often he might of missed a key fact, or more usually the presenter had not been clear in their statements. Sometimes the presenters were simply wrong. Sometimes the prof simply didn't know something. But he'd ask and find the answer. And by doing so, so did the other people in the room who were too embarassed to say anything.

Yes, use the search funcion as the archives here are great, but what is the harm that if you still don't understand, you ask the question? Life's too short to get shirty with people!

P17B (who's not immune to asking dumb things once in a while).

[pdblake]

Wouldn't it be nice, then, if the various councils and other powers that be did something to make more land available and reduce allotment waiting times

I've a feeling those lists (which I put myslef on last week) are about to get longer.

[sarraceniac]

Today on the BBC London news web pages there is an article about British Waterways preparing the banks of the canals in London for veg growing as part of Uncle Boris's plan for public bodies to give up land so people can grow their own food. So I assume in a couple of years time London will be covered in a sea of cabbages, runner beans and toms!

If I remember London from when I lived there let's hope that is all they will be growing.

[jackie j]

I am still trying to navigate my way around a computer never mind anything else, It has taken me time to find what I am looking for and some people dont have the time to stay on the computer long enough to find what they are looking for. I have asked questions then thought why didnt I do a search, then when I do a search I find things I wasnt looking for and it may contain one or two words associated with what I am looking for so then it takes even longer to look through. Hope this makes sense lol cos I have confused my self but you get the drift lol

[plotman]

Trained, b&q staff hmmmmmmmmmmmm what a thought..........................Nawwwwww it will never catch on lol

[jackie j]

I love going to B & Q cos I get loads of reduced plants cos they cant be bothered to look after them.

[sarraceniac]

I love going to B & Q cos I get loads of reduced plants cos they cant be bothered to look after them.

Wilko's is good too. They actually have 'sell by' dates (though they don't put them on the pots very often) because they know that once the plants are in the shops they will be totally neglected. I've bought things like Salix japonica, 3 feet tall for 50p. Nothing wrong with either.

[susieq100]

I am relatively new to serious veggie gardening ... where you have a plan etc ... I have a few reference books, but this is still the best place to be educated and entertained by all sorts of things. I belong to one or two other fora (more work related) and this is definitely the friendliest and most helpful. I think sometimes though it would be really great to have a glossary - you know what gardening terms mean in plain English - the 'pricking out' thing is a good example! What do you think Moderators?

[HotStuff]

Wilko's is good too. They actually have 'sell by' dates (though they don't put them on the pots very often) because they know that once the plants are in the shops they will be totally neglected. I've bought things like Salix japonica, 3 feet tall for 50p. Nothing wrong with either.

Not disagreeing with you, but I was in Wilkos the other day and caught a member of staff actually watering the plants on the shelves, I was so shocked I almost dropped my shopping basket!

[womble]

Veg seeds in more demand ( original post)....well then- shouldn't they be dropping in price a little???

Vegetable seed prices are like womens knickers. Only dropped by the owners when they want to, not when you need them to be.

[TonyF]

"Trained, b&q staff hmmmmmmmmmmmm what a thought..........................Nawwwwww it will never catch on lol"

"I love going to B & Q cos I get loads of reduced plants cos they cant be bothered to look after them."

OK folks, as an ex-B&Q gardening centre (award winning three years running) and major store manager, this is a case of people who don't know what's happening making those sort of silly remarks.

B&Q have cut their staff numbers down to the bare essentials and staff are told to 'face up' to the public and all else goes out the window.

The reason that B&Q staff seem to neglect the plants is that the volumes of plants through the back door is always - always, every year, without fail - far too high for the number of staff that are in-store and available to look after them. Plants in B&Q stores are not ordered by members of store staff, they're ordered and shipped in automatically, using a formula that is set by the buyers, not by the real experts, the long-service members of staff in the stores who know what they can sell and when to sell them

One of the biggest problems is that B&Q start the gardening year far too early - and on a strictly commercial basis - so they order in huge numbers of forced plants, contributing to the Gardener's World and sometimes people who use this Forum's idea - that gardening isn't seasonal, it's instant and that anything can be done any time of the year. Think food brought in by supermarkets out of season and then think B&Q plants. It's not 'reacting to what curtomers want' it's giving customers the idea that petunias are ready to go out in early March, tomatoes can be bought now and then put out etc etc.

Of course you can buy them now - and when they die, you go back and buy some more, sorted profit wise and if there are some plant casualties along the way, doesn't matter.

As for staff training, I was responsible for training the staff in a new store where I worked before I retired last time round. All on-line, no time for hands on, did away with experts in the departments - so no expert gardeners - and in the summer seasonal staff, usually weekend/part-time college people, the majority of whom were a liability no matter where they worked. But there was no time for training, because we were always chasing targets, moving stock etc. sp plants were the last thing that we had time for. I installed an automated watering system in my store for the bedding plants and was told to take it out because it cost too much in water!

The gardening was the last thing that senior people/buyers were concerned about, everything was and, according to my friends/family that still work at B&Q, remain a commodity.

Did I train my staff - yes, when I had the time, did I encourage other gardeners there to train the staff - of course. But don't blame the local staff necessarily, it's not, in the main, their fault.

[sarraceniac]

Naw. Don't blame anybody. Just thank the senior management of B&Q.

[MaureenHall]

Naw. Don't blame anybody. Just thank the senior management of B&Q.

And long may they remain untrained ............................. so we can grab some bargains (even more of a bargain on a Wednesday when I get my discount as well!)

[gridgardener]

the new computer user excuse is just that.

the new computer user excuse is just that. An excuse to hide the fact that in many cases the poster is stupid or to lazy to do there own research.
This can be seen by the fact that if ask them for more related info to there growing situation, they rarely provide the info or follow up there initial post.