What are you currently watching?

old shows like last of the summer wine, obly fools and horses, black adder

Monty Don's Rhineland Gardens has been good, he travels down the Rhine, visiting gardens whilst talking about the historical significance of the river and the places along it. He starts in Switzerland and moves through Germany and then in the next episode through The Netherlands to the sea.

It's really interesting to see how different cultures garden, what they call a garden and how it's used, the Swiss of Germans are very formal and Baroque with thier gardens, everything is precisely placed, it reminds me of municiple gardens from years ago. The landscape gardening movement seems to have passed them by and there's very little of the loose or sweepingly naturalistic gardens we're more familair with.

Monty Don's Rhineland Gardens has been good, he travels down the Rhine, visiting gardens whilst talking about the historical significance of the river and the places along it. He starts in Switzerland and moves through Germany and then in the next episode through The Netherlands to the sea.

It's really interesting to see how different cultures garden, what they call a garden and how it's used, the Swiss of Germans are very formal and Baroque with thier gardens, everything is precisely placed, it reminds me of municiple gardens from years ago. The landscape gardening movement seems to have passed them by and there's very little of the loose or sweepingly naturalistic gardens we're more familair with.

I actually really dislike the formality of those municiple gardens and the Baroque ones in the program, to me it looks to fussy. On the whole they make me nervous, if I went to one I'd be afraid of accidently standing on something I wasn't supposed to and I'd want to make some kind of mess, probably to get it over with so as I could stop being afraid. Do you remember that Victoria Wood sketch from years ago where she said she went into Beneton to unflod a few things? That's how those gardens make me feel.

I think wildlife prefers the less managed and infomral styles of gardening, there are places to hide and rest. There were lots of roses, all different colours, many standard bushes, the tall and clipped ones, it did remind me of the 1970's "Dad" gardens where you had a tall plant, like a standard rose, with lots of little things below it like busy lizzies and lobelia's with bare earth around each plant.

They probably think our gardens are terribly undisciplined and untidy, with plants billowing and flopping about the place and how so many gardens have a limited colour palette, with pale colours seperated from the bright jewel coloured ones.

TheCatWoman said:

it reminds me of municiple gardens from years ago.

I loved those too - flower clocks and beautifullly laid out flower beds in lovely designs. 

That's fascinating, I assumed that formal style of gardening would be more historical everywhere, but of course it would be cultural. I wonder how wildlife fares, where better or worse (more flowers but less wild plants?)