Gardening blog this week is about...Julia Bradbury, Glastonbury, Eden Project, BBC, garden centre parties, RHS Hampton Court, Felicity Kendal, fish, pizza and...short gardeners.
 
1. Anne Robinson is to become the new face of BBC Watchdog, replacing Julia Bradbury, who has her hands full at Countryfile. There don't seem to be many presenters to go round at the BBC, or maybe just no new talent?
 
2. BBC Glastonbury coverage involved 400 plus people. Headline news last week. When Horticulture Week asked how many covered Chelsea Flower Show, the BBC press office told us a few weeks later that it was about 18. Times that by 10 insiders suggest. The rest are all contractors and freelancers. Could there be less?
 
3. Went to London Parks and Gardens Forum annual summer do at Garden Museum last week. Met the admirable Mike Fitt, still working hard on behalf of Royal Parks and Royal Parks Guild; Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, very tall and doing lots of stuff at Hampton Court Palace -read about it in HW soon; Natural England's Drew Bennellick, that week's HW interviewee who told me out Landscape Review stalwart Jez Abbott once profiled him and a friend used copies of the pic as birdscarers; Dominic Cole, who is doing a brilliant-sounding project linked to Tim Smit from the Eden Project on the roof of the Hayward at London's South Bank; Mike Rowan, who was not doing his Richard Whiteley-style MC job at that day's Greenspace conference on GYO in parks (that my colleague Magda Ibrahim was at) and Jason Debney from Thames Landscape group that looks after Arcadia-David Attenborough could be at their annual summer bash at Syon Park this year. Wesley Kerr nearly said hello then remembered he shouldn't. Christopher Woodward gave a speech saying Veolia's park keepers can spend only 90 seconds pruning a rose or else the contract loses money. He added that Felicity Kendal has turned him down for an appearance at the forthcoming museum Good Life exhibition, but Richard Briers and Penelope Keith are up for it.
 
4. Also went to Kew on Sunday. Kids' play area has been dismantled just in time for summer holidays. And lift to treetop walkway lift is still not working after a year. Not good for the kiddies. What's up?
 
5. Went to Millbrook Garden Centre near Gravesend on Friday evening. Forthcoming interview of owners Tammy Woodhouse and Sue Allen in the next Garden Retail, out third Friday in July. They were throwing a retirment party for Sue and a succession one for Tammy as well as a 30th anniversary celebration. Coolings garden centre's Paul Cooling and Scotts' John Ashley were among 130 guests. Sue Allen told me they were 'party people'. Good to see.
 
6. Also went to the lovely RHS Hampton Court launch at Hilton on Park Lane. Beautiful Andrew Galvin restaurant. Edible Matthew Wilson celebrity gardening pizzas. Odd event. No senior RHS staff there so Wilson, after spending a while in the kitchen, did the speech, then talked to the guy from sponsor NS&I. The chef said a bit but was unsure of Wilson's name. The hacks there-Marc Rosenberg, Lucy Halsall, Gavin McEwan, Times online guy, RHS mag workie, me and Emma Townshend ate nice pizza, looked out of the windows at brilliant 360 London view then left, a bit bemused. Lovely RHS staff said they didn't know where show staff or senior staff were. Lot of staffs in that sentence.
 
7. RHS commercial director Gordon Seabright wants to see a Wisley 10km run. Sounds like a good idea to me. Any runners up for it? I'm in celeb fitness trainer Matt Roberts' running group training for the Royal Parks half marathon in October.
 
8. There's one way to solve the crisis in the oceans highlighted by ex Daily Telegraph environment editor Charles Clover's End of the Line film, which has won much favourable publicity, for its important message and as CC called in old favours from fellow hacks. There's one way to solve the problem of fish dying out. Ignore the everyone who says eat more fish and...eat less fish.
 
9. Being a short gardener surely helps with the weeding. Shorties are often known for their anger management issues-Napoleon etc. But gardening makes gardeners mellow, balanced people. Top 10 shorties: Martyn Cox (5'6''), Paul Jackson (Four Oaks 5'7''), Chris Cooke from Cornwall nursery Churchtown (5'4''), Liz Dobbs (Gardens Monthly 5'1'') Val and Steve Bradley (The Sun 9' 6'' end to end), Stephen Smith (Grosvenor estate gardener 5'6''), Alys Fowler (5'3''), Chris Beardshaw (5'7'' and with stacks 5'9''), Alan Titchmarsh (5'8'' or 5' 9'' when bouffant up). Any to add?
 
10. Sold a garlic bulb I grew to a colleague the other day. Should I feel guilty about not paying tax/undercutting the professionals/selling stuff to colleagues?

1. Hilaire Purbrick is being evicted from a cave on his Brighton allotment where he has lived for 16 years because it has no fire exit. Do you have any mad people on your allotment? The allotment committee hag who threated me with eviction from my allotment when I pruned a tree has now seen most of the tree being chopped down by the formidale Clementine, my allotment neighbour. The crone dare not argue with Clementine though-she's been there years and is pretty tough. I've only done three years. The witch said: "It's always the new people." Wrong-it's always the old ones. Avoid committee members on allotments at all costs?

2. Talking of eviction (oh that's Big Brother-I meant being fired), The Apprentice’s Mona was at Hillier Olympic tree contract winning launch. She works for Kent Business Link, that’s why she was so keen on Margate not being branded gay-friendly in the show. But seriously, Hillier's presence at Chelsea must go in their favour when winning big projects such as this, would you say?

3. Charlie Dimmock is making a return to TV! She is holiday cover for Richard Jackson on QVC this weekend.

Please-no comments mentioning 'mighty' and 'fallen'.

4. RHS website senior staff are under threat of redundancy, as are up to 30 other people at the RHS publishing operation in Peterborough. I'm told the site still needs more investment - why sack the people who are best in

the best position to see it through?

Has a politican been in your garden centre? Would you rather they hadn't?

6. The RSPB Make Your Nature Count survey has found one in 10 people who have replied have seen a badger in their garden. There’s now 400,000 in the UK since the beasts were given legal protection in 1991. Around 40 per cent are reporting frogs in their ­gardens and 19 per cent toads. So far, 110,000 individual birds have been counted, from 77 species, including blackbirds, robins and song thrushes.

http://www.soilman.net/?p=1565

about allotment bandwagon jumping. Here's the worst offenders:

#BBC free seed giveaway-I've paid for mine through licence fee but haven't got any- So they're not free then are they? The BBC ice cream van (which I also paid for) is always sold out or occupied by some clipboard moron I refuse to talk to and is not allowed to give out the seeds I PAID FOR anyway.

#National Trust seed and tomato plant giveaway-the Trust ordered 150,000 tomato plants from B&Q (not the 50,000 the Trust says) but decided they didn't want them when they found they had been grown in peat. So most had to be chucked.

#Queen's 'allotment'. when is a veg patch an allotment?

#Obama - similar.

#I hear Gordon Brown is next (he hasn’t revealed his veg garden planted yet despite reports saying he has) His wife Sarah is keen. Gordon says it’s frivolous. But everyone hates him so this will be when this bandwagon breaks down.

#Most gardening hacks-especially the ones with headscarves-always being boring about GYO.

#87 per cent of Gardeners’ World readers are doing it-GYO. Why not 100 per cent?

8. Latest in funny RHS press releases after the one about growing tomatoes in old bras.

Restaurant Galvin at Windows is hosting the Hampton Court Flower Show press launch on 22 June. Chef Andre Garrett has made some pizzas for the event, which I would tuck into if I wasn't a strict vegan. Which are true and which are actually being made?

The Titchmarsh

A tasty number, full of flavour and with a cheeky tang!

Artichokes, tumbling tomatoes, olives, red onion, basil, garlic, capers and mozzarella. Lots of cheese.

The de Thame

This spicy pizza is bound to get hearts racing…

Red, Green and orange peppers, chillies, pepperoni, vine tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, bluefin tuna, caviar, champagne.

The Monty Don

St John’s Wort, worms, smallholding pigs trotters, tweed, cord, hairshirt.

The Alys

Sorrel found growing on urban wasteland, nettles, ginger, wild fungi, recycled cheese made from urban rescue donkey milk, with rocket grown in baked bean tins found on a skip.

The Seabrook

A crusty pizza, with no-nonsense cheddar and British peat-grown tomatoes

The Walkden

Full fat Lancashire cheese with lots of red tomato in the middle

The Buckland

Bland Kraft cheese slice with a bald spot

More recipes welcome.

9. See if you believe this:

My question- How many staff did the BBC take to Chelsea this year and how does that compare to 2008?

BBC answer: "The number of BBC staff at Chelsea 2009 was 30 and this was to make 11 hours of programming, plus a huge multiplatform offer across bbc.co.uk and the red button."

My question: Why the BBC are not running the People’s Garden vote at Chelsea this year?”

BBC answer: "In 2009, we didn’t have the resources to run the vote, but the RHS ran a pubic vote [sic]."

Do you believe any of this?

10. Did you see Gardener's World last week when Alys Fowler go the short straw and had to do a one minute round up of products at Gardener's World Live. She mentioned no manufacturers' names. So the piece was utterly pointless in helping viewers know more about the products-where to buy them, how to find them, even what they were called. I'm told (not by Alys) a researcher found the products, most of which were old, and Fowler, as the youngest, had to do 'enthusiasm' bit. Of course, the exhibitors and visitors (and licence payers) help pay for the show, which the BBC gets 60 minutes easy TV from. So why hold them in such contempt?

I got a rare bit of fan mail this week. It said I should present Gardener's World etc. A nice change from usual abuse from MA wannabes.

1.

Times gardening hack, the admirable Stephen Anderton, the George Formby of gardening, said I need to get to know my peers better before getting personal about them. Anderton is www.thinkingardens.co.uk speaker. He says whenever he mentions serious gardening pundits always think that means opposing ordinary gardening. Anderton says it doesn’t. Anyway, I listened to Anderton and took what he had to say about being personal on board. But I had to do this.

Why is it when gardening keeps you fit (Bunny Guinness says so in her book) and eating homegrown veg keeps you healthy (nearly everyone says so in their books) that so many gardeners are fat? Please excuse me if there are medical problems involved. Just a bit of fun etc.

Next week. Short gardeners.

Fattest:

2. RHS garden writer Graham Rice is on a campaign to ensure plants announced as new are, in fact, new. Rice is very wise-he even has a grey beard. He cites Olympic contract winner Hillier as a bad offender-new plants always get extra publicity. What happens is the RHS press officers ask nurseries what’s new. RHS press office ask for new plants. Nurseries tell them their newest. When I go round I ask for new plants and growers show me them but often they’re not that new it turns out. Nurseries always confuse "new in our catalogue" with "never seen before". Nurseries know the RHS press office don't check and don't make changes when mistakes are pointed out by people like Rice. http://rhsnewplants.co.uk/

3. Chris Bailes, curator at RHS Rosemoor is going part-time (though that's old news). He’s not being replaced-less old news.

4. Gardeners World Live-requested an interview with Monty Don, or, at a push Toby Buckland. Got offered Adam Pascoe, Gardeners World mag editor.

5. Twiggy is the big rose launch at GWL. She’s 60. Harkness is breeder. Second biggest launch is Crohn’s disease society rose. Celeb sufferer songwriter Carrie Grant is unavailable. Who will step in? Tennis sufferer John Lloyd is favourite.

6. Joe Swift has been confirmed as a contestant on Masterchef on 10 June in all the press- I first wrote about this on 13 Feb. www.hortweek.com/news/879905/Interview---Toby-Buckland-TV-presenter-gardener-writer/ Amazingly, this is quite common.

7. I’ve got £170 of National Garden Gift Vouchers as presents to spend-what would you spend it on?

8. Jordan’s cereal launch at Kew. Jordan’s have built a beehive in the kid’s play area with a see-through tunnel for the bees, which “don’t sting much”. Scary.

9. There is a clamour growing to slap an environmental tax on peat. I don’t usually do news on here-save that for the mag, but here’s some just for fun. And because I’m always first with the news. But this has been around for years.

Plant conservation charity Plantlife conservation manager Deborah Long said: We think a peat tax is a good idea. It’s not a solution but is an effective method to highlight issues to gardeners. The key thing that needs to be done is to get local communities composting at home and encouraging people to do that. If you can make good compost at home you don’t need to buy loads of peat from garden centres.”

ENDS Report deputy editor Philip Lightowlers said: “Carbon taxes are not new but the idea of one on peat is mine alone at the moment as far as I know. We need DEFRA's study to tell us how significant peat use is as a carbon source, compared to say burning coal. Do gardeners who might buy peat-based compost because it's cheap realise they are doing the planet a disservice? Are they also among those who pay a premium for green electricity to cut carbon emissions?

“One day we may have to tax peat heavily to discourage its use. More likely, its extraction will simply be banned or else peat mining will be included in national fossil carbon emissions.

“Until that day comes, we can only hope to raise awareness that its use is unsustainable and will have to stop sooner or later, particularly in the amateur gardening sector.

Organic garden writer John Walker said: “A peat 'tax' would be one way to price peat-based composts out of the market, but my worry is that the gardening media will expend an awful lot of energy saying how terrible it is that gardeners have been subjected to a 'ban', but without, as usual, really giving a full explanation as to why.

Defra says: “It is important to consider many different options of cutting peat use, and the study on the climate change impact of growing media is due out shortly, however we consider the best way of cutting peat use is through public awareness.”

By popular demand (ie one person asked when doing this again). Still blogging at Telegraph gardening.

1. Last week was posh gardeners. Got feedback such as ‘they can’t help it’.

This week: working class garden-types. Common or garden gardeners if you will. Not many to choose from.

We have: Gardeners-not posh. Tree surgeons: not posh except the trustafarian tree huggers. Garden centres people: middle class. Parkies: working class. Growers: Not posh. Garden designers: mixed bag.

Least posh:

Andrew Fisher Tomlin-don’t be confused by the double-barrelled name. He’s from the Fens and lives in the rough end of Wimbledon-Raynes Park.

Andrew Wilson: From St Helens. Btw, AW rides a BMW K1200 and orange convertible Mini. Not a moped as previously reported.

Christine Walkden: Lancastrian, Reg, down to earth

Martyn Cox: Nottingham

Marc Rosenberg: Enfield

Kris Collins: estuary

Chris Collins: cockney

Roy Lancaster: Barnsley

Carol Klein: very northern

also:
AlanTitchmarsh-nobbut a lad Monty Python-style Yorkshire upbringing. Education: Shipley Tech College

Peter Seabrook-National Service Army trucks, self-made.

Many say to me that I’m well balanced: I have a chip on both shoulders. So me, fellow northerner BBC One Show gardener Christine Walkden, cockney oik Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins and anyone else with a Citizen Smith outlook are uniting. We’re angry. We’ll make placards. And protest. But where should we protest? And what should we protest about? Is there a class war in gardening or is it all in my head? Any non-posh to add?

2

Future Gardens: Good to see who was talking to me and who wasn’t. Made it a bit awkward on the bus there with the gardening hacks. They shouldn’t write endless puff pieces about Chelsea if they don’t want criticised. Good to see so many out and about though. Maybe me calling garden hacks lazy and uninterested helped. Probably not though. Was at Garden History Society summer bash at Geffrye Museum this week too. Apparently there's going to be a kids' beehive at Kew play area. And For Andi Clevely's allotment book the photos were taken by someone with a Hessayon book in their other hand. Always a good event with Dominic Cole and Tom La Dell starring.

3.

Best people at Future Gardens: Cherie and Nicholas Blair turned down an invitation. Nicholas interested in butterflies. Marcus Agius, Lord Aldenham, Lord Abernethy, Baroness Ashton, many Fox-Lanes and Rothschilds, Lady Bamford, Bellamy, Chris Bonington (declined), Bowes-Lyons, Carew-Poles, John Brookes (who wasn’t given a Chelsea ticket), Chevenix-Trenchs, possible patrons Chris-es Beardshaw and Packham weren’t able to come, Lady Egremont, Baroness Kennedy, Sir Terry Leahy couldn’t come, Peter Lilley, Celtic FC chair Brian Quinn.

4. Saw Sarah Brown at Heathrow coming back from Gardening Scotland. Her kids were carrying a box of toys. Gordon not around. Running country/saving skin. Mrs Brown is keen on an Obama-style veg patch at no.10, which All-party horticulture group is advising her on. Visit there soon. Gordon no interest in gardening. No MPs at Chelsea-looks bad to take the freebie.

5. At Gardening Scotland Beechgrove’s Jim McColl said gradual changes in gardening TV programmes were what you should do. Quick changes bad-note for Gardener's World. Princess Anne went. And there was a gravestone in a garden for Monty Don. Poor taste. Not as poor taste as dog gravestones in garden centres, says John Walker, who is annoyed Garden Media Guild dropping enviro gardener award. JW uses his award it on his byline.

6. RHS in talks to lose 10 per cent of staff is my news story of the week. And Jordan's favourite garden centre in second place. Third is National Trust giving out peat-grown plugs. NT has a peat-free policy. They say they want to riase awareness of only being able to get peat-grown tomato plugs by giving out peat-grown tomato plugs.

7. Housewives fave-strangely attractive Alan Titchmarsh: Hackwatch. Titchmarsh is never called anything but 'housewives' favourite'.

#A curious crush on AT-Woking Herald Liz Darby

#I am living many women’s dream. I am meeting AT-Leigh Mytton-BBC

#AT would be the housewives fave to replace Richard and Judy-Guardian-Neill Denny

#Housewives favourite. Author. TV presenter. Alan Titchmarsh is all those things -My Water Feature

Bernie Goodjohn-Northants Eve Teleg

Mail

Elisa Roche Daily Express

Sarah Dumpster Granuad (continues) Do you love Alan too? Or does the mere mention of his name see you cursing the very soil from which he was hewn?

8. Koi carp cost £14.99 each with a three for two offer for 5 inch specimens and up to £600 for a two foot monster.

9. Garden parties are breeding ground for adultery

Next time you are invited to a summer garden party, you may want to keep an eye on your spouse.

IllicitEncounters.co.uk, the UK's largest extra-marital dating site, is bracing itself for a surge in new members over the coming months.  Last year the site saw its membership increase by almost 15% between May and August.

"Summer garden parties and barbecues are a great place for married couples to shake off the frustrations that built up over the winter months.  Wine flows, people get a little tipsy, and conversations turn flirtatious." says Sara Hartley, site representative.  "Parties like this often become the backdrop to burgeoning romances."

"Those who are more reckless may choose to pursue people in their social circle, which can be very destructive.  Those who have decided that they want to experience something new, but want to limit the damage done to their friends and family, come to us."

10. There is no 10.