Gardener of the Decade at Eden
Last week I went down to the Eden project to film Gardener of the Decade with Rachel. It was the past gardeners of the year battling it out with each other for top spot and it's to be aired on Friday 12th Dec at 8pm. Should be a really good programme, but of course I can't give anything away!
I've been to Eden twice before. Once when it opened and the other time about 4 years ago for GW, just before we started on the viewers Jungle garden at Berryfields. I have to say, it is now seriously mature both inside the biomes and outside too. The tropical biome is just so authentic I really thought I was back in the jungle of South East Asia, where I spent some time in my early twenties. Overall it looked absolutely amazing and is maintained to an extremely high standard, and packed full of inspiring planting. I just wish I'd planned another day at the end to look around more, but I had to get back to London. If you ever get a chance to go, take it, and if you've been before but haven't been for a while then go again as it's changed a lot.
Tomorrow I'm going to dig up some sweet potatoes for the first time at the allotment. I've got quite a few different varieties that I'm helping to trial for the RHS, but I can already tell from the top growth of leaves that some will have more than others on them. I'm also going to sow some green manure as everyone I've talked to raves about its qualities. 'Til next time, Joe
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I'm really looking forward to see how the sweet potatoes do - I'd really like to have them on my plot next eyar - the kids love em.
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I tried to sow some green manure this week -I was especially after Phacelia since Toby and Alys considered it the best. But there was none at all in my local garden centre as they don't have their autumn delivery of seeds in yet. And my favourite on-line seed supplier doesn't seem to stock it either.
One of those situations where the programme content and stockists seem to be out of synch! I'll have do some more serious searching....
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I'm afraid that I was very disappointed in the format of the Gardener of the Decade competition, having looked forward to it for weeks. It seemed to have more to do with Strictly Come Dancing (SCD) than the format of Gardener of the Year. A very negative step which detracted from what has been a very well run competition series.
It is obvious from watching the preview that all finalists were present at the end of each Gardener of the Year to congratulate the winner. Presumably all those finalists were competing up to the announcement of the result.
It was unnecessary and a gimmicky copy of the SCD format to dismiss competitors as early as after the 3rd task. To send them home was ridiculous after all their commitment and an insult to not have them return at the prizegiving. It was like seeing naughty children sent home when, in fact, these were mighty figures in the gardening world.
The stupidity of all this was born out when the winner pointed out that she had been within a single point of being dismissed, clearly demonstrating how much we missed potentially from seeing others make a similar comeback.
Frankly this was akin to stopping all but the first competitors in a biathlon race after the first and second shoots, when it is quite common for the eventual winner to have make a spectacular recovery.
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