About wild abt . . .
By kenetski
3 comments
Having read various people’s blogs, I felt that , whilst they were pretty accurate – cost, time etc, they rather missed the point abt the programme: to show people the sort of things that can be done and, more importantly the THINKING you can bring to the subject. Thinking about what wildlife needs, rather than what you own wishes are, is very helpful, but does rather require an examination of your own prejudices, and perhapsputting your ego into second place . It also requires one to look at their own first, I dare say culturally induced responses on occasions e.g. “Oh, I hate nettles, earwigs, slugs, spiders ,wasps, UNTIDINESS” Hopefully people will see that they can apply their own versions and solutions. Thus e.g the hawthorn at that size certainly was over the top. [incidentally, I would have pruned it pretty severely to make it more manageable; it would have responded well] I do a certain amount of work of this sort; both for other people and on our own land and know well how this can be done. It is certainly true that wildlife, particularly of the flying variety, can respond astonisihingly quickly to new habitats. This also applied when we had a pond dug out about three years ago. I think it illustrates how much-needed new, or rather replacement habitats are. Interesting that so many people are interested. Blogging is new to me. Kenetski
20 Nov, 2008
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Previous post: Comments about programme 1wild about your garden & lawn
Comments
I agree with Grenville - and I am concerned that the cost of transforming a garden as they did in the programme would put people off, who might otherwise have 'had a go'.
Let's see what next week brings, shall we? It was only the first programme of a series, after all..
20 Nov, 2008
brings me back to thinking of Geoff Hamilton and the reason he was my gardening hero. we dont all have lots of money to transform a garden overnight. Geoff's progs always showed you how to try things yourself , which was great.
its a pity programme makers dont show a garden evolving over say a couple of mts .
20 Nov, 2008
You have made a very interesting point here. Some folks think that in order to attract wildlife into any garden it has to have a 'wild' character and be untidy.
This is simply not true, and our inner city garden attracts a variety of wildlife, but not birds because the bird population has seriously decreased .
When designing any garden irrespective of its style, you always have to think of the practicalities of the garden setting and how you will develop it and also maintain it afterwards.
I would say that the pre - planning was pretty poor in some areas of the programme as they hadn't thought through the need to bring in the heavy machinery after they had erected the Pergola. Then they found that the space was limited to get in the large trees.
These mistakes can prove to be very costly in terms of time, materials and labour.
I think its unfortunate that the television producers still use the old 'makeover quick- fix solution' to the garden design programmes, and this can give the viewing public the impression that it all can be simply done in a couple of days.
I often think that the quality of work and the planting can also suffer as a result.
What folks don't see is the 'stand by' team lurking in the background who are there to get all the work done on time or are available to rectify the mistakes after the filming has been completed.The old 'makeover' programmes often had this safety net.
Therefore I think the folks who did make comments were not missing the point- they were being very realistic, and could see the real pitfalls.
At the moment I'm still of the opinion that I feel its locked in the old time warp of garden makeover and home improvement makeover programmes!
We will have to wait and see how the programmes develop as the series continues.
All best wishes.
20 Nov, 2008