February... staying in and watching TV

Gosh, I have blinked and it is February and I haven’t blogged for ages...apologies! The weather is grim and although we have had an odd bit of snow nothing has settled. So a month for planning, pondering and watching TV which leads me on to...

Good gardening TV: well I use the word ‘good’ loosely. I really enjoyed seeing Bruno’s Cork jungle garden on Sky’s ‘Show me your garden’ he has used his space fabulously and has loads of well looked after plants. Overall the program is ok...the basic premise being that 3 people show each other their gardens and then they vote on which one is the best...I can imagine this concept being thought up by some cool young Hoxtonite with asymmetric hair and a giant beard as in theory it works (and is a well used tv concept) However gardeners are generally far too nice and so far there has been no sniping or bitching behind the rosebushes. Although who knows, perhaps they are saving it for the finale?

I liked ‘Britain’s best back gardens’ more, and good on Alan Titchmarsh basically doing a program where he gets paid to visit loads of great gardens across the UK and pick his favourites! There were lots of inspirational ones, including lots of great NGS gardens and ones which had been on TV before. Probably my favourite program of late.

I’m a bit ‘blah’ about the Great British Garden Revival as I feel I should like it, but feel the concept is weak as basically it is about doing a feature on all the main aspects of gardening....which isn’t really a revival. Although I want to like it I find myself skipping through the sections I don’t like and even not watching some (which says a lot). But I did like Jo Swifts bog garden bit (with some fab tree ferns) and James Wongs Lilly's (I may buy some Lily Regale and spray with garlic water to keep the Lilly beetle at bay)


Bali: Something which has been fabulous has been a 1969 David Attenborough program on Bali which is on the BBC Iplayer. Gamelan orchestras are making me want to book a flight. UK audiences can find it here

New Blog Discovery. I have just discovered Jungle Mike's Blog. I am in love...amazing atmospheric pictures of the jungle in Borneo with lots of the kind of plants I like. He is very talented! Be inspired...
 

Pondering seeds and bulbs: plant catalogues have been falling through the letterbox faster than snow giving lots of food for thought. I am very enamoured with summer bulbs at the mo as Acandanthia always performs well. My current dilemma is which colour of Tigridia to order?! White, red or yellow? I feel as usual this order may be more expensive than I was planning.....

 

Garden is all too frost bitten to post pictures of! so here is a nice bananas dangly bits and some tropicana from the Palm House at Kew to cheer us up.