'So I'll be letting go, goodbye and not hello'
I'm not sure how to let go of Berryfields. Or put another way, I don't think I ever will. It is etched in my gardening psyche, because of it I garden differently, better, wiser. I can sit here and map out its every corner, know what is under every bush, exactly where you'll hit clay or where to sit to catch the afternoon sun in every season - but in time this will fade.
What won't diminish are the memories: Beth cart-wheeling in the meadow, Joe throwing his trowel in at planting bulbs and Geoff's revelations to keep him going. Those stolen lunch times swimming in the Stour, all who came and ate at our table, and the funny things we served up to you. That lunch on a shoot when Clare S, Monty, Joe S and I sat discussing art and the Beatles and it didn't seem there was a better job. Letting off fireworks with Gordy the soundman. For me Berryfields was as much about the people as it was plants.
As I write this the Trillium sessile are in flower, the cherries are in full bloom, heavy with bees, the Fritillaria meleagris are up around the pond, now full of tadpoles and awakening newts. The veg garden is also alive again with full heads of lettuce and rocket flowering all over the place. In short, the cycle is starting up and yet this time without me.
I know Berryfields had its critics and much of what they said was true for them. But for me Berryfields was, is, alive and kicking with soul and I am very proud to have been apart of it. I only have one wish left and that is that I might see the swallows return.
Now I must step forward to a new future with different soil and just as many memories to make.
I'm listening to 'Goodbye' by Essie Jain.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~38~RS~)
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thank you Alys for over two years at Berryfields you have made the garden come alive, not just the plants,but the animals birds and the workforce . for me I have so enjoyed reading your blog thank you
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Hi Alys, hope you're only saying goodbye to Berryfields and not Gardeners' World? Please keep blogging, you bring a refreshing insight to gardening, the plants and the wildlife.
BTW really enjoyed 'The Thrifty Gardener', it's saving me a small fortune!
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Hi Alys - it's always so much harder to say goodbye than saying hello but I'm really excited to see what Greenacres is like and what you'll be doing with it. As an amateur gardener watching Berryfields was beautiful but it always seemed way out of my league because it was already so mature and developed and I'm really hoping that Greenacres will address some of the basics that I'm so keen to learn! Good luck and I'm sure you'll have lots more wonderful memories still to come.
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I can't believe I'm and seeing this! Berryfields was the best thing to happen to Gardeners World in years - and Alys was/is the star. Why they brought that Toby guy in I cannot imagine! And I bet its him that's put paid to Berrryfields and moved the programme to an indiscriminate field where they now seem intent on playing at carpentry and much else that has as much to do with the kind of gardening that most real gardeners do as flying to the moon!
Another bit of tinkering by the BBC for no good reason! Ah, well, the evenings are getting lighter so I can spend the time in the garden on Friday evenings doing something useful! Sorry Alys - I did enjoy your gardening but I won't be joinig you and the rst fo the good, the nad and the ugly in the appalling garden shed.
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Sorry westoner but i've got to disagree. Berryfields was a lovely garden but it took Alice's blogs to bring it alive. It sounds a fab place to work but the programme never really showed that side. Greenacres is more like my garden when i moved into my house (albeit much much bigger!) frankly barren but surely thats the joy of gardening creating something out of nothing. also by being a complete tv garden there is more honesty than at b'fields where it was nice to look at but at times no more relavent than visiting your local national trust garden, with its sense of scale. It just had that feeling of being in someone elses garden, where as Barleywood previously just felt warmer somehow. Maybe thats the fault of the programme makers? Or different presenting styles.As for the carpentry thats what most of us have to do, scratching about with cheap bits of wood & clearly cheap nails (thanks for making me feel better about bending so many nails and putting in screws at wierd angles) For anyone interested see the plans for Green acres in GW magazine. good luck with the garden Alice and enjoy many more happy days
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Having enjoyed Monty at Berryfields, I felt that it was time to move on as the Long Borders were getting a bit weary and year after year it was getting very repetetive, I was a bit dubious about Toby joining the Fab Gardeners World team but I feel that as the team have moved location to the Greenacres site Gardening will now take on a new approach and that is good for all gardeners as sometimes we need to change as well, I'm so glad that Alys and Joe and Carol are still with the programme as they will bring their own expertise and humour and enthusiasm to the show. So Good Luck to everyone and long may Gardeners World continue.
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Alys- love your insight at the wrench of leaving berryfields behind- but looking forward to seeing what happens in greenacre!
My own garden has been a wilderness for years & wishing I had a bramble "bomb" that would destroy the brambles & leave everything else intact! Hope to find out what I did wrong with my honeysuckle too as it looks nothing like what my Mum used to grow!
Also wishing I could look at seedlings like you & Carol do & say yes this is worth saving as while weeding think I found some self seeded gazinias but will only be sure when they flower- if they survive being transplanted into pots! It is green bits in the air & stringy tangle in the mud I hope! LOL!
This is the 2nd year of trying to tame my wilderness so hopefully will get it manageable soon!
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I will really miss Berryfields too - it was a part of the Friday night treat - time to plan what to do in the garden over the weekend. I'm just starting out with a brand new vegetable garden, and looking forward to seeing what happens at Greenacre. I wish all of the team well, old and new faces alike. The programme is a source of huge inspiration to me, and I'm excited about the coming season. I've planted far too many veg seeds for my little plto, so I think I'll have to set up a plant swap of my own!
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Congratulations Alys. The first episode of GW, and the first at Greenacres was spot on. I have shed envy for the first time ever!
As you are being pigeon-holed the 'Thrifty One', I thought this ingenious method of growing Toms might inspire you....
http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/
Keep up the fab work.
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Hi Alys so pleased to see you are going to be doing more presenting on Gardeners World from now on. I loved it when we saw your own garden and i look forward to all that you contribute in this new series. It was beautiful at Berryfields and i understand your sorrow at leaving there but I think tnat this new venture in Greenacres is just right for the current climate. People are hard up but need to see how they can use their own open space to the best of their advantage. If I feel depressed for any reason a spell in the garden, weeding, potting up etc. always lifts my mood and I am sure that is the case for a lot of people. Looking forward to the next show already.
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Hi Alys. I was pleased to see that you are still part of the program. Lots more thrifty tips please! And don't listen to some of the negative comments in other corners, my dad & I both loved seeing your dog in the garden at Berryfields. Our dog (Toby) likes to supervise any work going on in the garden as long as it doesn't involve the lawnmower.
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I am so disappointed and sorry to see you are going, I shall really miss you, your quirky shed, comments and of course your dog. If people keep leaving at this rate, I will not be watching this time next year, nor keep up my subscription to the magazine, it just won't be worth it. I still have not recovered from the loss of Monty, albeit for ill health which of course I understand......Sorry Toby but you just don't cut it for me........I could give out your gardening advice, I find it patronising and sometimes so obvious........especially to people like me who are just your everyday gardeners who has picked up knowledge by experience.........it's just boring..........please, please don't go Alys..........where is Carol? Mary
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Hi Alys
Carry on letting us know easy money saving ways to garden. I'm all for it being another 'thrifty one'. Also, I'm all for introducing youngsters on to the programme - a great move. But: horrors! I had thought GW was a gnome free zone, but not so! Whose idea was that?
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I hope & trust that platinumCoxy22 has got the wrong end of the stick - the programme is leaving Berryfields, not Alys the programme! Please inform if it's I who have the mistaken part of the log - Alys is surely the best "thing" (if I may use the word of a person!) about GW these days & her loss would indeed be a terrible blow...
As for the change in location, my main concern is whether or not the BBC has had the good sense to *buy* the new site??? I was horrified when I discovered that Berryfields had only been leased - not only is paying rent (if it can be avoided) a terrible waste of money long-term, but the thought of all that time, effort, skill & investment going to some (undeserving?) third-party is appalling!
B.
P.S. Personally, I don't miss the dog - terriers aren't my thing at all, at all. But it *would* be interesting to see some features about their impact on gardening, how to restrict/utilise it, etc. Our own bitch is a demon for digging up borders, widdling on the lawn, etc. - never mind snuzzling me any time I'm crouched down to do anything tricky! ;) But I've yet to see/hear a mention in any medium on how to deal with her "helpful" contributions...
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Hi Alys
Last year you were starting to compost weeds like bindweed by covering them in water. I have done this when digging over my new allotment plot and it's now beginning to stink. What do I do next and how long should the weeds stay in the water?
Hilary
PS I like the new programme - useful for garden starters
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Alys, I am not sure how I missed it but suddenly there was no Berryfields and a brown mud space. So so sad! I admit that I miss Monty so much I may be unreasonable, but I also miss the beauty and the poetry of the garden, the emphasis on ecology and the holistic view of what gardens actually are for each of us.
So, like you, I guess I have to move on, but I am struggling. Hot or not? Blue Peter projects, all those bang-bank annuals, this feels like a challenge. There are the bright spots - your practicality being one of them...and I love the propagation pieces with Carol. Joe is doing some interesting stuff with design of ordinary gardens.
I will be patient!
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Is the information that fills in the blanks available?
For example my vision of trying to start an enviromental technologies
business (98) and stuff like the broken limb, co-op job in europe
during 9/11, already famous, (I dazzle like movie "21") that obtained
this position.
Hey I control the interest rate. I did put the oil to $147, then $40,
not $200 -it was a choice I made.
Kristina Brooker (126 395 086)
-functions are shapes, what do the shapes say to do for safety.
-I don't understand talking that way.
-takes a year or two, maybe less with the computer.
What to expect?
-an engineer (99386493 - U of Waterloo) would say...
The graph of the fuctions indicates all expectations.
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I hope you are just moving away from berry field to green acre and not leaving. I love the new gardening world. I think you Joe and Toby are all fab. To be honest i dont see the point in Carol. Everyone thinks she is fantastic but i just get bored when shes on. I think you 3 have alot more tallent and you work really well as a team. Keep up the good work, and thrifty tips they are awesome! :D
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I am really enjoying the new series of Gardener's World. I am a keen but not very knowledgeable gardener so to start a garden from scratch is very interesting and exciting for me. I can't wait to see how it develops. I think all the presenters are great and each brings something of themselves to the programme. I too would like to see the dog back. Pets, especially cats and dogs, love to be out in the garden when their owners are gardening and I have adapted certain parts of my garden to suit them. My cats are also the reason that I still have a lawn - I would like to see the back of it but they love it so much and, of course, eat some of it which is important for their digestive system, so for now the lawn has to stay. I'm looking forward to next Friday's programme about encouraging bees into the garden. I'm always looking out for insect friendly plants to encourage them into my garden. Keep up the good work everyone.
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Perhaps taking the helm of GW is akin to taking on the job of prime minister. There has now been a ridiculous amount of comment on whether Gw has improved or is dumbed down. fact is most new comers to gardening are fairly dumb to horticulture and basic horticultural techniques. At the moment there are loads of new 'gardeners' growing there own and whilst the craze lasts there is a need to educate them how to sow seeds and use a watering can etc. Perhaps they might even have to learn how to wash a potato and scrape a carrot if their crops grow.
It is clear that we have too little gardening on television and,though it will never happen, we do need a more high brow programme in addition to the regular GW. I think the team are developing quite well and toby is doing ok and it is clear that it isn't easy to please everyone all the time. Of course the overwhelming problem at the moment is that greenacres is still a bit of field with some new garden in the corner , which is what you would expect. i think any experienced gardener would appreciate it takes time to for a garden to mature and become inspirational and is does also with new colleagues trying to work in anew environment. If anything, Carol could been seen as having taken the easy route and stayed at home and left the rest of the team to take the majority of the negative comments . I think the majority of criticism should be aimed at the bbc and its obligation to tick boxes in terms of what content the show has to include. The chelsea footage was fairly well laden in drivel dressed up as amusement or entertainment. Gardeners should garden and presenters should present, but you should all be thankful that the new presenter wasnt the babbling brook of bull that is Nick Knowles .
stick up for yourself alys and try and enjoy the job.
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Alys
I think that moving on is all part of life, we all have to do it sometime. I thought that Monty's intellectual approach to gardening was refreshing; it's nice not to be treated like a primary school kid sometimes or be talked down to. I sure that you will be able to carry on Monty's intellectual, ecological approach.
And while the new format will take some time to adjust to, I was so pleased when you mentioned polyculture the other week. I have been looking at forest gardens/permaculture recently as an option and am just starting to try out my own version in my long skinny mid-terrace garden (4 metres wide x 23 metres long!!) Please convince someone to do a few spots on this intriguing and sustainable way of gardening and food production: I sense that you are the right person to push for this.
Good luck!
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I've been sitting there on Friday evenings watching the new GW with Toby B and trying not to be negative too early, but I just feel the programme has gone backwards. I've been watching since Geoff Hamilton and I really feel that the Beeb has not made the right choice with Mr Buckland. I'm afraid I just can't warm to him, though I think I understand why he was chosen. Fortunately Alys and Carol make the programme worth watching and I would like to say an especial thank you to Alys for her spot on tomatoes and comfrey (sometimes things just go click! and that was one of those times). And I also would like to thank Carol SO MUCH for her inspiration with cuttings and seeds. I have gone into overdrive on both and have pots potted up, seed packets bulging and seed trays waiting to be utilised.
I know it's probably asking too much but could Mr Buckland please tone down the testosterone? I'm finding it quite wearing how he 'Alpha Males' it with Alys and Joe. Monty NEVER did that. I fear that we will lose Carol, Joe and / or Alys because Mr Buckland is a pain in the proverbial - that GW will change as a result so I won't want to watch it anymore - and that my sources of gardening inspiration will be greatly depleted.
As far as Greenacres is concerned, I'm concerned it will end up looking like a corporation plot rather than Everyperson's Garden before too much more time passes.....
I don't mind change and I've seen a few on Gardeners' World, but I really don't like the latest ones at the moment at all :-(
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Alys
Can I ask a question please?
Can you tell me the outcome of the Cosmos trial last year. I have a lot of deadheads on mine and am not sure whether to get rid of them
amjo
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