Why doesnt Ireland have a proper gardening show ?

When rte have had a show recently, it always seems to be a competition. Never just for the love of gardening. That super garden show is ridiculous in so many ways.

If you are working in an environment where everything has to be high speed, high pressure, living in Dublin, don't stop peddling, then turning the joy of a garden into a short term competition probably makes sense. And for the people with no notion of waiting for things to grow, watching the seasons, tending plants, being philosophical about failures, slowly building a garden to suit current needs, this is the kind of thing that they want. Instant satisfaction.

I can look at my own garden that we have been rescuing for about 3 years and either see what has still to be done, and the dodgy bits that have been done but temporarily abandoned while different bits are rescued, or I can see what has been achieved, and enjoy it. The latter way changes mindset and is much the most satisfactory.

Good old Greenfingers with Gerry Daly.

There's always been variations of gardening programs since over the years.

Why Supergarden? Cos it doesn't cost RTE anything, it's just one big long ad for the sponsors. There's always a wall to be painted, paving to be supplied by kilsaran, and the obligatory trip to Woodies, not to mention the continuous references to Bloom.

The actual gardens, most of which would be overgrown disasters within a couple of years, are just mediums to achieve the real objective.

I would love to know how a lot of them look now. Diarmuid Gavin had a show here similar to the one he did in England years ago too. I know of one of them which featured a 'skywalk' in the trees that subsequently had to be completely removed because it was unsafe, but you never hear about this stuff.

We need to get NK to represent a few gardeners :)

For the same reasons Ireland doesn't have a proper

Internationally acclaimed Food & Drink Show.

This will probably be deleted by mods, but

The Big Grill 2022....

If you attended... Join a long queue.

When you get your food eat it asap and then get out!

You'd have thought that one of the executives would have got their garden done while getting a crew to film a gardening show!

RTÉ or Virgin Media will require that at least [u]one[/u] Celebrity Personality that is well known in Irish Media in general is [u] guaranteed to get a publicity boost out of it when they are paired with such a show.[/u] If this guarantee cannot be assured, then no gardening show.

The culture of recreational gardening & allotments etc is a century or two older over in England in particular. It was one consequence of their industrial revolution and the migration of people into cities and urban areas generally. We were more of an agrarian society up to about 50-60 years ago. It's a foreign idea to RTE.

One swallow never made a summer though. Gerry was a bit of an outlier.

I remember RTE in the 1980s - it was a diet of GAA, horse racing, dog racing, LLS, local drama like Glenroe etc. There were no RTE staff involved in the likes of gardening, not part of the culture.

Bloom is a joke & a rip off

I used to watch the show with Dermot O'Neill (RIP) and Helen Dillon as a teen, even though we didn't have a garden. Always enjoyed it. Loved it. The Garden Show I think it was.

They had another one in the past few years partnered with GIY about growing food, which was passable. Grow, Cook, Eat.

Would love to see a show like Gardener's World though. I'm a complete beginner but have always loved it. Monty Don is mesmerising!

Supergarden is a dreadful show. But I would have thought a basic traditional garden show wouldn't be particularly expensive to produce.

I love Gardener’s World so much. Wish there was some sort of online library where I could view previous episodes. Learn so much from it.