Felicity Kendal has gone down in my estimation. The Good Life actress pioneer of grow your own in the 1970s made gardening and crime a TV staple with Rosemary and Thyme.

But now Felicity and actress Jenny Seagrove, clearly out of work, have decided to turn their attentions to dog-killing park cyclists.

Apparantly, cyclists have killed two dogs in parks this year. This is a bad thing and the actresses have started a campaign to have it stopped.

I contend that any negative publicity towards cyclists increases agression by drivers towards them on the road-and this causes human deaths.

Cyclists should ride more carefully-everyone agrees that. But campaigning against park cyclists is dangerous.

I'm judging the Garden Media Guild website award this week.
Everyone's getting into going online. You have to do something new to get interest. My initial observations: Doing your mag the same as the print version but online is lame. Some webcasts and other new features are boring or gimmicky. RHS/BBC/Kew spend millions on it.
Went to Kew on Sunday to visit the £3.5m treetop walkway, which has it's own website. It's new and exciting and a compelling reason to revisit, because attracting visitors isn't about new people-it's about giving a reason to old ones back. My story in this week's HW says recession means it's a good time for people to try and get the most out of their annual memberships and visit National Trust/Kew /Eden Project etc. Then again, I've been invited back to Kew next week. Not sure if I want to go back quite so soon-unless they've built something new in the last week.

Met a real star in David Bellamy at London Green Corners judging yesterday. A living legend. he's been round the world four times already this year working on conservation projects he started in the early 1970s. Bellamy said people worry about fuel prices but because travel is so much more efficient now, prices have not really risen. The botanist is certainly more approachable, if equally ubiquitious as that other great TV naturalist David Attenborough. Who has done more for the planet?

Gardening does need celebs. Toby Buckland debuts tonight on BBC Gardener's World. HW has an interview of Buckland's innermost thoughts published next week. Last month Toby was a nobody. Now everyone wants a piece of him. Will Buckland be a big enough personality to reach out beyond GW audiences? Bellamy told me Monty Don said a filming day at Buckingham Palace that if he didn't work all the time he got depressed. Bellers added that Monty didn't know the names of many common plants. Monty loved the fame. Still does I'd wager.

Ex Blur bassist (that's a pop music band of the 1990s) Alex James was the RHS's idea of a celebrity who might get some publicity for their new Inner Temnple show that I attended the launch of yesterday. James did not show. He also had nothing to do with his balcony garden. The RHS said James only had to out his name to it and to attend the press call. The popster-turned-cheese farmer managed one out of the two. So maybe being a gardening celeb is easier than it sounds.

Went to Wyevale's Plan Apple sustainable development report launch at their flagship store in Bicester this week.

Scotland's richest man, billionaire Wyevale owner Sir Tom Hunter told me Jim Hodkinson, who Nick Marshall replaced last week, hadn't been given the boot or been replaced unexpectedly, despite his introduction in the Plan Apple brochure -but obviously not at the launch.

Hunter said he would be working closer with Wyevale, which is not covering its interest from itws loan from Bank of Scotland at current profit levels. Expect to see Wyevale sustainability director Dr Alan Knight try and tackle peat next Easter - there's plenty of profit in peat-free and mixing green and profits is what Sir Tom said it was all about-and that's no bad thing.

Marshall told me he buys lots of plants. Really? If I was a garden centre boss I'd get them for free. He also grows his own. Maybe he will be checking out ex-HW features ed. Alys Fowler's thrifty gardening book, which offers tips on saving money-as seen in this Mon's Guardian. Bunny Guinness has been on about this too in the Telegraph. It seems the poshos are keenest on avoiding the credit crunch through GYO. The rest of the population is happy with crisps.

Meanwhile, William Sinclair have been taking a battering on the HW webpages for making carbon-frendly claims and having to give up Bolton Fell in Cumbria. But it is two other peat firms that will be in the news next week-with one buying the other. Watch this space. Also, Ken Muir, the fruit grower has been having a management clear-out. There's more to this than meets the eye. Having the webpages here to break news is great fun. Your feedback appreciated.

Someone once told me there are four types of staff.

1.Keen and talented. These are best.

2.Keen and not talented. These can be trained.

3.Not keen and not talented. No good.

4.Not keen and talented. The most difficult category.

That last lot are the gifted people in your hort business who don't care but you know they are good. The crux is to motivate them. And that means more money, promotions, letting them feel like they're part of a successful business -letting staff share in success. All difficult things to do in recession. But one thing that recession does do to motivate is scare people. A not keen and talented associate has just been fired for causing a fight at an office function. He didn't much care about his job. Now he's worried about his mortgage. So if you are struggling as a business, let your staff know that you are relying on them to pull you through. It shows how important they are to you. But it won't work if you haven't rewarded them in the good times.