Gardeners World, an inspiration! - Teaching us to garden.

What an absolute thrill to have appeared on Gardeners World, albeit very briefly. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would appear on my favourite TV programme.

I’ve watched pretty much every episode for the last thirty years, back to when the late, great Geoff Hamilton was presenting, from Barnsdale.

I’d just got my first garden and I knew nothing. My dad had been a very keen gardener, growing all his own veg, but sadly he’d died when I was a young teenager.

Geoff took me, metaphorically by the hand, and guided me every week in his gentle, down to earth way, in the art of gardening.

The Gardeners World approach has always been practical but simple, never over complicating the process. They made you feel that you could do that, in a way that many gardening books of that period didn’t.

Visiting other people’s gardens has always been inspiring. I particularly loved the many visits to Christopher Lloyd at Great Dixter. He encouraged you to break the ‘gardening rules’ especially when it came to mixing colours, that you weren’t supposed to mix!

I’ve always had a love of white flowers, so the first time I saw Sissinghurst on GW, I was blown away at the idea of a whole garden of white flowers. I finally created my own small white garden just over four years ago.

Gardeners World has fed my gardening passion, resulting in us moving house 8 years ago, just to get a bigger garden. We took on a large lawn and have transformed it single-handedly into a walled kitchen garden.

After spending much of this years winter lockdown reading gardening blogs, I was inspired to start my own. It documents our progress in constructing our newish garden, and our continued journey into growing our own.

You never stop learning about any subject, but especially gardening. Gardeners World will regularly feature a subject you knew nothing about, which is always a thrill.

I think all us gardener’s love the ‘Jobs for the weekend’ slot, as there’s always something that’s slipped your mind. Monty gives us a gentle little reminder.

I hope I am able to enjoy at least another thirty years of viewing, and who knows I might make it back on again.

In the meantime, here’s my two minutes of fame, growing carrots in my winter greenhouse.