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Message 1.Â
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Monday, 5th January 2009
I know this thread is for Gardening on TV but please excuse me this once for mentioning a Gardening Radio Programme.
Without doubt; Bob Flowerdew is KING
I've listened to Gardeners Question Time' for many years now and Bob's knowledge and experience far surpasses any of the other panel members, no matter who they are. Especially the 'Airy Fairy' Pipa Greenwood.
Whilst Bob is experimental, inovative and forward thinking, all the other members of the panel seem to be stuck with either 'old hat'or often disproved ideas and theories.
This Sunday( 4th Jan) Bob came out with yet more inovative wisdom about 'Compost Heaps' which I have long suspected but have never carried out. Wisdom all the other gardening 'experts'in the media have never mentioned - OR EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT!
Gardeners need ideally, three compost heaps! One never provides the time for organic matter to rot down properly within a practical time scale unless in the correct temperature, position,or right consistency. Three compost heaps in yearly rotation solves the problem ideally.
This man is always magic.
How about a new and more foreward thinking Ö÷²¥´óÐã4 gardening programme?
BOB FLOWERDEW'S 'GARDENERS QUESTION TIME'
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Message 2
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Monday, 5th January 2009
what time is it on please and what program ( no i dont get a radio times)
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Message 3
Posted by michelle78 (U7007319) on Monday, 5th January 2009
GQT is always on at 2pm on Sundays. They used to repeat on Wednesday at 3pm but now the repeat will be Sunday and the first show on Friday at... Can't remember. Sunday at 2pm anyway Little-Ann!
I love to listen. Always entertaining.
Mich -
Message 4
Posted by Aspidistra (U11680993) on Monday, 5th January 2009
I absolutely love GQT and to me it represents everything that is good about radio 4. It is gentle, informative and humorous and never needs to resort to brashness.
But all the fun of the panel's differing opinions would be totally lost if it was just The Flowerdew Show. I very much respect his comments but I think Pippa Greenwood is an absolute treasure because of her fantastic knowledge of pests and diseases. I think that if you want to be really organic, you have to get good at identifying what is and isn't a pest and what diseases there are around, so I would say she is a vital part of the show.
I thought I heard a bit of it a while ago when Chris Beardshaw seemed to be chairing it, unless I imagined that. He is definitely the natural successor to whatsisname, the lovely presenter, whenever he goes, as this great institution deserves someone who will keep the tradition going for, I hope, many more years to come. -
Message 5
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Monday, 5th January 2009
i have a new recorder for the television which also recieves radio so i have set it to record, i just hope it works.
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Message 6
Posted by joanybird (U11052594) on Monday, 5th January 2009
Hello Little-Ann
You can listen to GQT on Ö÷²¥´óÐã iPlayer for a week after it's first broadcast -
As I only have a tiny strip of garden not much of what is discussed applies to me, but I do love listening.
However, ZhanZhuang, yesterday I'm afraid I shouted at the radio
when Bob said he thought that "most people need not one bin but 3" and that "one bin is impossible". Ideally maybe. But who has room in a modern garden? I don't even have enough room (or raw material) for one 
Not trying to be controversial and start an argument
. It's just a fact that not all of us have allotments or large gardens, and it might have been better for him to acknowledge that one bin is better than none - and maybe it's also best to have varied opinions from the different panel members?
Jb -
Message 7
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Monday, 5th January 2009
Thanks for replying folks
Your differing opinions are just as valid as mine, which I do respect.
Pity I forgot to give my post a title. Must have had my head in the compost heap too long
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Message 8
Posted by Berghill (U2333373) on Monday, 5th January 2009
Funny how this is 'forward thinking and innovative' I have 3 bins In, Pending and Out and have had for the last 40 years of gardening as shown by an old gardener who was in his 90's then.
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Message 9
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Monday, 5th January 2009
thanks JB i will have a listen tomorrow
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Message 10
Posted by Trillium (U2170869) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
I always thought Bob Flowerdew interesting but opinionated and self-righteous. I went off him properly when he answered a question about 'his and hers' roles in the garden. He answered, apparently without irony, that the garden was his and he thought 'her' proper place was firmly attached to the kitchen sink.
Cue much murmuring from the audience and evident 'what did I say wrong?' twittering from Bob. -
Message 11
Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
Me too Berghill, although the careful sequence of In, Fermenting and Out got a little lost last year as all the wet weather generated more weeds and prunings than we could stuff into the In bin so stuff was spread across al three. OH will enjoy sorting that out this spring.
For those with small gardens it is worth considering investing in a tumbler bin which generates usable compost in weeks rather than the months needed for the average cold heap but even then you'd need somewhere to stock new material while waiting for the old to break down. The other alternative is to take it all to the council compost facility and buy the completed article back from them but then you never know what's gone into it in terms of chemicals and weeds and seeds do you? -
Message 12
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
i have two tumbler composters but when they get about a third full i cant turn them over and they take a lot longer than weeks to work, so unless you have a big strong person about don't bother
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Message 13
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
thanks for pointing me to i player JB i havnt used it before but have listned to GQT from 28th Dec and now listening to the next one
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Message 14
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
Funny how this is 'forward thinking and innovative' I have 3 bins In, Pending and Out and have had for the last 40 years of gardening as shown by an old gardener who was in his 90's then. Â
You missed the point my friend Gardeners like you, and the old 90yr chap, have known this for years
Bob was foward thinking and inovative enough to state what the experts have never told us. Either they don't know or for reasons bests known to themselves, have kept it a secret - including the 'untouchable??' Monty Don -
Message 15
Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
You can't have been paying attention to GW then. GH, AT and Monty have all advocated the three bin system where space allows and have also shown us in detail about how to layer, how often to turn it, what not to compost and what should be shredded before composting. I've never seen any of them plant anything in their respective GW gardens without talking about first improving the soil with compost or mulching with compost and so on.
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Message 16
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
you are correct Obelixx
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Message 17
Posted by jo4eyes (U13654107) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
JB could you fit in a wormery? then you can recycle your kitchen 'green' waste. Jo.
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Message 18
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
You can't have been paying attention to GW then. GH, AT and Monty have all advocated the three bin system where space allows and have also shown us in detail about how to layer, how often to turn it, what not to compost and what should be shredded before composting. I've never seen any of them plant anything in their respective GW gardens without talking about first improving the soil with compost or mulching with compost and so on.Â
I must have missed that episode mate. I stand corrected
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Message 19
Posted by joanybird (U11052594) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
JB could you fit in a wormery? then you can recycle your kitchen 'green' wasteÂ
I've thought about that in the past Jo but decided against it for various reasons, which have now changed so I might start considering it again. I'll have another look at 'Wiggly Wigglers' catalogue
Little-Ann - I didn't realise you could catch up with GQTs older than a week! I missed the 28 Jan one as well.
Jb
PS: Pretty certain the row of compost bins has featured more than once on GW - but I stand to be corrected as well -
Message 20
Posted by little-ann (U12937473) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
it was still on today JB, i enjoyed and had a chuckle
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Message 21
Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
Actually, mate, it seems you have missed several episodes over several years.
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Message 22
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Tuesday, 6th January 2009
JB could you fit in a wormery? then you can recycle your kitchen 'green' wasteÂ
Strangely, my kitchen waste collection, which is placed one of those 'practical?' dustbin shaped things and impossible to mix when it's half filled, has masses of red worm living in it. By the way it's in the garden not the kitchen
They also crawl around the edges, inside and out. When I do put the 'mix' on the garden I dig it well in - worms and all. They carry on the good work in situ. Although this 'stuff' isn't true compost the worms break most of it down adequately in just one season and the runner beans love it. The mix that hasn't been processed just rots in the ground and keeps it moist. No vermin to date!
Wish I had the space for three proper heaps but my worms are looking after me well at the moment - as well as my resident pair of robins -
Message 23
Posted by Berghill (U2333373) on Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Slightly away from the original point, but I hope relevant is that in our first garden we did not have room for even one compost bin and wormeries were unheard of. The soil was depleted and need humus adding. So, solution from another elderly gardener. Dig a trench across the area to be improved. Collect together all the compostable material until you have enough. Fill the trench by digging another. Repeat until you have worked your way across the area. Worked for us!
Now is that innovative and original or just gardener's old tales? -
Message 24
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Actually, mate, it seems you have missed several episodes over several yearsÂ
How ever have you come to that very subjective statement on the one and only contraversal point I have made on this thread? I've never come across a psychic gardener before 
I follow the veg section of Gardeners World programme almost without fail.(Although I do go on holiday a few times a year.) That's how I know that THE EXPERT, Bob Flowerdew of Gardeners Question Time, is streets ahead of all the other conventional gardening specialists.
However. Is Bob Flowerdew THE EXPERT? Or is Monty Don and the rest? There's only one way to find out. FIGHT -
Message 25
Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Wednesday, 7th January 2009
I refer you to your message number 18. You refer to "that episode" when I was talking about numerous programmes by various presenters which mentioned composting and the uses of compost. Hence the observation that you haven't paid attention on more than one occasion.
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Message 26
Posted by jo4eyes (U13654107) on Wednesday, 7th January 2009
I do a compost trench across my veg bed every year. The kitchen compostable waste gets collected & dug in & yes it does rot down really well.
This year I've covered the trench with wire mesh (pegged down) as the rat found it!
I'm planning to dig up another part of the lawn this year & shall start another 'trench' there.
As we're vegetarians I get plenty of waste to use, more than the wormery alone can cope with. Jo. -
Message 27
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Wednesday, 7th January 2009
So, solution from another elderly gardener. Dig a trench across the area to be improved. Collect together all the compostable material until you have enough. Fill the trench by digging another. Repeat until you have worked your way across the area. Worked for us!
Now is that innovative and original or just gardener's old tales?Â
Great idea On the subject of innovation.I suspect that, like most subjects, its all been done before in one form or another. It's just that some ideas get changed for 'better ideas??' until at a later stage in history, another gardener 'Reinvents The Wheel'and we are back to square one again.
It maybe that Bob Flowerdew is better at 'Reinventing The Wheel' on many occasions than the others. Despite his apparently new innovating ideas like 'never digging the garden over.' But perhaps that's not new either As such, for me, he makes better and more interesting listening.
As an organic pest spray I use the old fashioned method of making a Nicotine Spray out of tobacco.( A natural herb) I saw this method advocated on a brilliant series on TV about allotments. I suspect this method doesn't comply with 'elf n safety' or EEC regs. because after this episode it seemed the series was pulled off screen. However, if you want the recipe I can post it. -
Message 28
Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Nicotine spray may be organic but it's also indiscriminate and kills good bugs too. I never spray against insects. Cabbages get netted against butterflies and feeding the garden birds means there's always some to eat the early aphids while the ladybirds and hoverflies get into gear.
The Elizabethans practised no dig gardening in their formal fruit and veg gardens laid out in grids. -
Message 29
Posted by ZhanZhuang1945 (U13690780) on Thursday, 8th January 2009
Nicotine spray may be organic but it's also indiscriminate and kills good bugs too.Â
I only spray directly onto the pest insects which for me are always black and green fly. Any lady birds are picked off first. The tobacco spray has a lasting effect of about 2hrs and less if washed away by rain. Not being systemic other good insects coming along later are not effected. I must say that it is inaffected against caterpillers
Last year I grew cabbages for the first time. No netting - BIG MISTAKE! I used the method of control so often advocated by the expert organic gardeners. But as fast as I picked the caterpillers off they were back the next day munching away. Using a magnifying glass I spotted loads of them in tiny form. This method simply didn't work for me.
YES
Netting next year Obelixx. -
Message 30
Posted by Berghill (U2333373) on Thursday, 8th January 2009
Nicotine is an EXTREMELY toxic substance. In its pure form it can kill just by contact. You are making a very very dangerous substance! It is also persistant so even if you spray only on the pests, the stuff remains on the leaves and will kill Bees etc. If you must spray against insects then for heavens sake use an insecticidal soft soap which is organic and less likely to cause environmental damage! Sheeesh!
By the way I like a lot of the things Flowerbottom says, just find his attitude a bit 'holier than thou' at times.
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