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?
5. New BNP Euro MP Nick Griffin uses Dobbies garden centre in Shrewsbury for meetings. The Independent’s Peter Victor and Griffin went in Griffin's Mondeo estate to Dobbies. Griffin: "Normally we'd do this in a pub but it's too early for that."
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.
7. I like this from Soilman.
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?
