Monty Don

[Alison]

I don't find Longmeadow at all inspiring, looks nice enough but not how I like to garden. I do however like Monty (seems a nice person) and love Nigel the dog who is getting a bigger and bigger part each series, so much that he had to explain where he was when he was housebound last year . Played a drinking game of where's Nigel with a mate last year - you can get quite drunk doing that!

[WPG]

He does seem to be a bit of a marmite character, but personally I totally adore Monty Don (and Nigel too). The highlight of a Friday night is Gardeners World for me, and I really enjoyed his recent series Big Dreams Small Spaces too. It's funny, some people might feel he's dogmatic but I find him quite the opposite. I think he's very open to new ideas & experiments, and happy to admit his failures. Most of all, I like his sort of meditative views on gardening, and the idea that it's not all about hard graft but that the garden is a place to be reflective. I love his writing too, he has a lovely way with words.

I'm really envious of his compost system - nice if you have the space. Also his never-ending supply of leafmould. I guess one of the things I've learnt from him is the benefit of deep mulches, which I try to copy. I've also tried the layered planting of spring bulbs in pots which he demonstrated last year, I'm going to take photos of each stage to see if it works or not.

I'd love to visit his garden some day, especially to see the white and jewel gardens. The only part of it which I didn't really like was his box hedging, I wasn't too sad when that caught blight.

[Kirk]

Never took to his style and on the earlier editions it looked as if he was pushing the others to the fringes and off the program. I have the impression he is presenting rather then doing. From what I saw of GW some years back he did not inspire me with confidence in what he said.

I am afraid that if he is on it then I will find something else to watch.

[Marb67]

I like him and his lifestyle and have garden envy every week. Like to see more of his cats as I know from his books he does have them. Glad when the box hedge was over. It seemed to go on for an eternity. Would raher the whole program was just him gardening, mainly veg. I was dissapointed Alyce Fowler never got another series " the edible garden" or even a slot in GW along with Monty would be good. Bob Flowerdew is also missed on GW. Great character. Love Beachgrove garden too.

[muddled]

Just checking that wasn't a predictive text error for "Beechgrove" ?

If you thought Longmeadow wasn't a small garden then I'm doubting that you think that Highgrove is, or maybe your Lottery Win target is bigger than mine?!

No, Highgrove is definitely on the large side
But Monty did a programe 'big dreams small places' I think it was called, which I looked forward to for ages.....then realised that when he said 'small' he meant 'park sized'

And I really prefer Beechgrove to GW, in fact, I don't watch GW at all anymore.

[Kristen]

I really prefer Beechgrove

Me too, although I don't think that Chris Beardshaw fits in with the original style of the program. My guess is he was brought in for the audience watching via BBC2, when that was added in addition to BBC Scotland ...

[Greenleaves]

I really admire his skills but find him very "my way or no way" Beechgrove is far more informative and interesting for me

[WendyC]

We went to see him give a talk at a local theatre. He was very engaging and talked about how Longmeadow had developed over the years and spoke with great respect about the man who had laid the paths, and Nigel of course! During the talk he described the moment, when sowing carrot seeds, he realised he needed to garden as a way of maintaining balance in his life. From his description I could feel the crunchy carrot seeds in my hand and the damp soft earth from the comfort of my theatre seat! I knew exactly what he meant. I have read several of his books where he wrote honestly about his winter depression. Struggling with this to a less extent myself I could really identify with his annual struggle. Yes he may have a bigger garden that we could all hope for, but he was stony broke in the 1980s after the collapse of his jewellery business.

[Penellype]

I adored Geoff Hamilton, who was my inspiration for gardening, and Gardener's World was never the same when he had gone. Having said that I do like watching Monty Don and what he does and attempting to apply the relevant parts to my own gardening. Longmeadow is dreamland for me - I can drool over it without having to actually face doing all the work that it would entail, which would of course be completely beyond me. The one thing I could NOT do with would be having a huge garden and needing help to maintain it as I am hopeless at managing people and tend to try to do everything myself. I therefore have a lot of respect for someone who can manage something that size and have it the way he wants it to be.

One thing I did learn from him a few years back was what blight looked like. The previous year I had assumed that it was frost damage, but having seen him cutting down a load of blighted tomatoes, I went out the next morning to look at mine, and yes, they had got blight.

[Laney]

I also liked Monty's article about growing comfrey & nettles to make food for tomatoes. I'll have to wait until next year for my comfrey roots to grow into a crop for harvesting, but nettles will be easy to gather this year.

[maverick451]

I much prefer beechgrove tbh

Every project on Gardeners world seems to cost an absolute fortune!

This is my fav gardiners world with monty, the allotment special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT67dpM2LiY

[Patsy]

Bit biased as I'm a gardening programme addict, but find Monty Don and Nigel very entertaining. Picked up loads of tips from him (Monty that is, not Nigel!) Comes over as a very genuine chap. I plant daffs layered in pots as suggested and also tulips (Carol K). Very successful, looks spectacular & saves digging up bulbs every time you're gardening. I did like Toby Buckland though as he was the most down to earth presenter with loads of good ideas and tips. I agree that it's time for Bob Flowerdew to be back on the telly, went to one of his talks very entertaining and knowledgeable especially as I garden organically. Just one query what channel is this Beechgrove on please?

[muddled]

I watch it on beebeecee iplayer...it's seasonal though, someone will be later I'm sure who can tell us when it's back on.

[Kristen]

I'm surprised at the number of people who say Monty is "my way, or no way". I answer peoples questions on here, and the only answer they get is Kristen's way!!!! ... To folk who say they cannot grow Cauliflowers or Leeks successfully I explain how I do it. No idea if it will work for them, but my way is generally generic, learnt from others, certainly also the method that some other people use so likely to work ... but there are definitely other ways available too - "Ask two gardeners and get three opinions" applies

I think it would be very confusing if he said "You can grow them like this ... on the other hand you could grow them like that ...", although he does say, from time to time, "If you are on light soil you need to do ..." or "If you are further North you need to delay X weeks ..."

Maybe I am missing the point as to why folk say he is forcing his methods on his viewers?

[sparrow100]

Just one query what channel is this Beechgrove on please?

Back on in April, usually on BBC2 I think though I watch it on iplayer too. They aren't infallible though - at the beginning of October Carole advised it was now time to pull up your oca. I'd have expected them to do a bit more research into what they were growing for the first time, because it was totally the wrong advice, and checking the growing instructions would have been fairly easy.