BRITISH GARDENING TELEVISION FANS, HAVE I GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU

I can’t tell you how happy I am that so many of you have been enjoying the British gardening television shows I’ve been linking to for the last year. It makes me feel like a normal human being, because when I see a new show pop up on my Youtube feed, I get downright giddy, immediately drop everything I’m doing and sit down and watch it.

And I found another one that I think you’ll really like. It’s called “Monty Don’s Big Dreams, Small Spaces.” Just the title encompasses so many things that I love: Monty Don? Obsessed. Big Dreams? Well, yeah, who doesn’t have big gardening dreams? Small Spaces: Check.

Sadly there are only five of the hour-long shows. Each episode features two families who are creating new gardens over the course of a year. My man Monty shows up in the beginning to help them with their plans, once or twice in the middle of the project to pitch in and then comes back a year later to see how the garden ended up. The gardens ranged from low-budget overalls to $20,000 dream gardens. Some of the concepts and designs were downright strange, but to Monty’s credit, even though you knew he was thinking, ‘This is not going to work,’ he never tried to talk people out of their dream garden but tried to help them make the design more practical.

So here’s my question: What would you do if Monty Don or any other serious gardening expert came to your garden and suggested ways you could improve it? I know I’d be taking notes and probably doing exactly what they suggested. I found it interesting that that’s not the case in this series. There were some homeowners who were so set in their plans, no matter how impractical, that they weren’t going to listen to a thing Monty said. That sort of blows my mind.

Anyway, give it a watch and see what you think of it. I like it because it’s gardening on a bit more approachable level.

And I have even better news for you. I figured out how to set up a Youtube channel with playlists of all my favorite gardening shows. So now you don’t have to wade through a mass of links in posts. You can just go to the channel. I got most of the shows I’ve mentioned before linked there into playlists by show and I’ll add more as I find them.

I’ve added the latest in “The Great British Garden Revival” to that playlist and you may want to check out a show that is airing on a different network called “Show Me Your Garden.” There’s only one episode up so far but I’ll be on the lookout for more. The quality isn’t as good as in the BBC shows, unfortunately.

It sounds like “Gardener’s World” is set to return in March, which seems like it’s ages away.