Why is it ...............

[admin]

............ that every time  there are sports events, the proms  etc etc etc on TV it's ALWAYS the gardening programmes that are axed from the schedule?

Is  gardening  really that unpopular these days? 

[Jupiter]

You ought to try living in Australia. It's a dismal state of affairs here, we have one gardening programme and it's pretty lame I'm afraid. Australian's in general don't know how to garden and have no idea what gardening even is.

[Anthony Darby]

It grates on me when people call my garden a "yard". The "back yard" was a small enclosed space of bare earth, concrete, or tarmac etc that was kept clean with a yard brush.

[Jupiter]

Anthony, that is a pretty fair description of a lot of the "gardens" in my area, except the yard brush has been replaced by a leaf blower. Actually I can hear one operating now... 

[Lori S.]

Used here, "yard" refers to the property around the house, without implying anything about how that space is used... at least that's how I interpret the usage.    When one uses the term "garden" here, people immediately assume that you're referring to a vegetable garden... which couldn't be further from the truth in my "yard", LOL! 

[Tim Ingram]

According to the latest RHS The Garden (from the AGM) the UK has some 8 million gardeners and the RHS itself just over 400 000 members so we should be sitting pretty here. We probably have the best gardening programmes in the world but even we (especially we) tend to complain that they don't capture some of the detailed and considered fascination of the plant world that you see within specialist societies like the SRGC and NARGS and AGS. I'm not sure that the big Gardening events in the UK are not more like Sporting events in some ways - their aim is to attract the largest numbers of people which doesn't quite tie in with my concept of what a garden is. (Mind you I have always loved going to Chelsea so I am a hypocrite in some ways). The idea of Show gardens also doesn't necessarily relate too much to knowing a lot about plants either, though it can do. Television isn't really a medium that caters to minorities, although there are occasions when it does this brilliantly. Mind you there is something thrilling about watching Ian Botham giving the Australians a run for their money (a long time ago now!).

The aim of the RHS is to 'draw together all the disparate strands of growing and showing plants for the benefit of all', which it does very successfully, except that probably some disparate strands like to stand on their own in partnership with others. I would love to see programmes about exploring wild places and discovering the plants in them - that's what really informs my gardening - but there wouldn't be a big audience for this.

[ChrisB]

Plants don't 'move'.  Even the programme with our beloved David Attenborough supposedly about plants actually focused on the creatures of one sort or another that use plants rather than the plants themselves because they move.  Even Chelsea, which gets a lot of coverage, is about the presenters.  True the cameras do scan over the plants and designs but the bulk of the programming is about presenters talking to each other.  Why anyone thinks that's interesting beats me...

[Anthony Darby]

I used to be an avid viewer of "The Beechgrove Garden" and "Gardener's World" (until Alan T. left, then I watched sporadically). I haven't seen a garden programme since arriving in New Zealand.

[Tim Ingram]

But we move when we explore the world either intellectually or actually. There is huge scope to make programmes about plants that show something of this. David Attenborough's programmes were scientific and factual (and often chose aspects of plants that do change rapidly - viz: the speed at which brambles grow, or the unfurling of flowers, or the relationships with insects and animals). How about that amazing thrill when you climb high up into the mountains and find something you have never seen before? I've never seen Eritrichium nanum in the wild but it is obvious that those who have have a sort of 'Farrerian' moment. It is as much to do with the landscape and weather as it is with the plant itself and good television could show this just as fine films and books captivate us.