Fish Tarka way, allotment wars, Monty Don tweeting and The Garden, BBC non-PR

Christine Walkden and Christopher Walkden –separated at birth?

2. Allotment Wars is on BBC 1 10.35 21 January. Kevin Hull was in touch a year ago about it and for a few months afterwards having “enjoyed reading some of your articles and blog”. He was going to come down but couldn’t show because of family illness. I wonder if the programme will tackle allotment ‘dirty plot’ notices, which is the serious issue aside from the petty neighbour squabbles.
3. Talking of BBC, they did not tell many gardening mags about Allotment Wars, Monty Don’s French Gardens. A-Z of gardening TV or indeed any other garden shows they have on in 2013, apart from the ones you suggest to them that might be on. Why can’t they promote their own shows? They have  147 press officers who never tell you what is going to be on because they say they don’t know. They used an outside press agency to promote Don’s new show, which starts on 1 Feb. Some garden editors are getting frustrated I hear. Maybe they save it all for BBC Gardeners’ World mag. Or maybe they’re all doing Jimmy Savile defensive PR. I asked them about dropping 3 Counties Radio gardening show. They didn’t know pretty much anything about it.

4. Visited Olympics the other day. Last I went almost a year ago was to look round the gardens for a Guardian piece. I was the only hack there. Not that it stopped several gardening hacks writing pieces off the website. This time, Telegraph, Times, Standard (not the garden hack), a news agency and Joe Swift were there.

5. Guild Agricultural Journalists is trying to restart its NFU hort hack of the year award after six years off. “We’re in the process of trying to get it going again. One of my Guild colleagues has started the conversation with the NFU, but I’m not sure where they’ve got to. I’ll try and find out for you. Our original aim was to relaunch it this year,” they tell me.

6.I see the papers have decided to run the Prince Harry/ Chelsea Flower Show story I broke in November. Articles in the Mail and Sunday Times even use the same quotes and pics as the story from almost two months ago.

7. RHS The Garden magazine January:
Mail garden hack Nigel Colborn column on ash dieback: “Last October when the disease hit the headlines…blah blah blah” Ash dieback was a headline in his own paper in June, six months before ‘plantmadnige’s’ why oh why piece.  He goes on about ash dieback and the Government not warning anyone.  Did he warn us about ash dieback in June, or October? No. Makes the whole The Garden column redundant.  Ditto Titchmarsh in latest Gardeners World-similar piece.
Then again, a letter in the times from BCGI lauded the times for breaking the dieback news (five months after the Mail).

8. The All-Ireland Tree Felling Contest has been won by tree fellers from Limerick
© 1976 The Two Ronnies

10. Diarmuid Gavin was in ITV’s Splash celeb diving programme, not qualifying with 16.5 points. He wore an Ireland shirt and yellow trunks. Here’s why he did it.

11. Davina McCall has a greenhouse.

12. A few blogs ago I asked who a Kew graduate from the 1980s was. This is her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helge_Breloer

13. Where Chefs Eat (author: Joe Warwick) Amsterdam De Kas restored 1926 nursery.

14. Downing St cat.

Q to St James’ Park manager Mark Wasilewski: What makes a successful park manager?
A In this job – being bordered by Buckingham Palace, Downing Street and Parliament Square – it is sensitivity and diplomacy. You never know who’s asking you about a flower or tree. My staff of five people deal with the palace, Number 10 and Scotland Yard and this can throw up unusual situations. Larry, the Downing Street cat, recently found its way through my pet Maisie’s magnetic catflap: I had to carry him back and ease him through the Downing Street railings. Management involves planning hospitality, security, media and medical positions and crowd movements on top of horticulture and maintenance. People see us as civil servants, but I’m a gardener.
15. Tweets: Is Minty Don the new Richard Madeley? – handsome, charming, puts foot in it.

1. Chris Young ?@SeeWhyGardens
@TheMontyDon you could always spend a cosy few hours indoors reading #thegarden magazine (I know, I know, that’s a cheap plug, but….!)
@TheMontyDon
@SeeWhyGardens I would absolutely love to but have not even seen a copy for years, let alone read it. My loss.
Sharon Moncur ?@SharonMoncur
@TheMontyDon @seewhygardens Someone buy that man an RHS membership!
MontyDon ?@TheMontyDon
@SharonMoncur @SeeWhyGardens Cannot do that as long as I write or broadcast about the RHS and retain impartiality.
Chris Young ?@SeeWhyGardens
@TheMontyDon @sharonmoncur I can see that about membership but sad about not coming across it. Will need to rectify..!
Chris Young ?@SeeWhyGardens
@SharonMoncur @themontydon DM me an address to send some to! I would have thought/hoped it would have been part of your reading…?
MontyDon?@TheMontyDon
@SeeWhyGardens I literally never come across it and am not on a press mailing list. As a result I never see it.
16. Fire devastates Sheerness produce warehouse
Freshinfo-1 hour ago
Five people have been injured in what firefighters have described as a “massive blaze” at a reefer warehouse at the Port of Sheerness.

17. Poetry corner

D T. Brown’s customer service supervisor Deb Nicholls is used to dealing with queries and occasional problems presented to her by the company’s customers, but a poetic lament received recently brought a smile to her face and prompted her to deal with the matter in a like manner. David Simpson of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, sent her the following plea:

I bought some ‘Toscana’ strawberry seeds, I thought I would try something quirky,
I looked forward to a summer of delicious soft fruit, and went to the greenhouse quite perky.
But when I read the sowing instructions, in despair I sank to my knees,
It said that in order to germinate, they need a temperature of 200 degrees!
Oh Mr Brown, I am now in a pickle, I don’t know what I should try,
I’ve turned the knob as far as I can, but my propagator won’t go up that high!
Perhaps it’s a typo that nobody spotted, it can sometimes happen you know,
Or maybe it’s true and these special seed need roasting to get them to grow!
So please Mr Brown let me know what to do, I’ve tried but I can’t raise that heat,
If there’s something to try, apart from the oven, our wisdom would go down a treat!
The problem was indeed a ‘typo’ and Deb realised ‘200’ should have read ‘20°’. Her response was swift, apologetic – and in verse:

Dear Mr Simpson I’m down on my knees,
How silly of us, 200 degrees!
Was it the printer or was it just missed
It could be the designer who had a slight lisp.
Your email has given us all a big laugh and therefore I say on all our behalf
However it happened we really are sorry
and am sending a packet that will cost you no lolly
“I appreciated Mr Simpson’s tongue-in-cheek complaint and thought he deserved a reply in verse”, said Deb. “We like to react promptly, but promptly and in verse is more of a challenge! We are always grateful if someone point out an error and we take all our customers’ comments seriously.”
Defra issued peat task force response. But didnl;t tell anyone.
18. Metro – vegivores article. Not before time.
Simon Hopkinson’s the vegetarian option quadrille. Wonder when there will be a vegetarian TV programme.

19. MHP 30 to Watch 2013
The winners of the MHP 30 to Watch 2013 are as follows:

Emily Ashton, The Sun
James Ball, the guardian
Sophie Borland, Daily Mail
Michael Bow, City A.M.
Kaya Burgess, The Times
Susannah Butter, London Evening Standard
Tina Campanella, Freelance
Peter Campbell, Daily Mail
Robert Cookson, Financial Times
Andrew Dagnell, ITV
Rachel Dalton, Professional Pensions
Anjuli Davies, Reuters
Dan Dunkley, Private Equity News
Adam Gabbatt, the guardian
Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph
Ben Griffiths, The Sunday People
Josh Halliday, the guardian
Isabel Hardman, The Spectator
Kathryn Hopkins, The Times
Dan Hyde, Daily Mail
John Kenchington, Investment Adviser
David Keohane, FT Alphaville
Hannah Kuchler, Financial Times
Ben Martin, The Daily Telegraph
Simon Murphy, Daily Mail
Tom Rayner, Sky News
Juliet Samuel, The Times
Chris Spillane, Bloomberg News
Michael Stothard, Financial Times
Jon Swaine, The Daily Telegraph

Special Gold Awards
Emily Ashton, The Sun
Peter Campbell, Daily Mail
Isabel Hardman, The Spectator
Tom Rayner, Sky News
Jon Swaine, The Daily Telegraph

Young Campaigning Journalist of the Year
Kaya Burgess, The Times

20. Otter fish tarka way. Will otter hounds make a comeback?