Last week's Supergarden

standardg60

Taken from the Kilsaran website:

We’ve worked with leading designers like Alan Rudden, Darren Joyce and our in house designer Mark Harewood to create serene little niches that work with nature and stone. From our water features to modern sculptures, from comfy seats to stunning pathways, there's lots to spur on your creativity.

I've long had my suspicions that this show was little more than a half hour advertisement for the sponsors, but presenting one of your own designers as a first timer is a bit rich.

Live at Three

This is a terrible show.
- Very little to do with gardening or garden design
- Horrible car alarm theme music
- Fake suspense before the ad break
- Misrepresentation of the actual process in favour of fake drama (spoke to someone who told me they used a hose to add extra 'rain' to one scene)
- Distasteful use of the story of a deceased family member to manipulate an emotional response, culminating in the money shot of the bereaved person crying on camera. This really is tabloid T.V.
- Meaningless criticism from judges "do you think you have the bottle to deliver this design?"
- Awful, stilted and scripted scenes involving judges. Nobody looks like they're enjoying themselves. Why do they travel to the site in the back seat of the taxi together? Why do they look so upset? Has someone farted?
- Deadline, for no apparent reason. Why not allow them to do it properly? Why make them work overnight?
- After criticising all 5 gardens, they still pick one as being worthy of Bloom.

I started watching this show a few years ago with interest, but the formula has become really tiresome.

standardg60

Well said.

I found the scene where the Woodies horticulturalist extolled the virtues of Lavander ( Woodies have obviously committed to buying a shedload from Tully nurseries) and Festuca 'blue grass', or glauca to anyone with a hint of horticultural knowledge, particularly laughable.

But I was especially wondering if the other 'contestants', or anyone else, knew that Darren Joyce (the contestant on last week's show) was already a 'leading designer' who was involved in the design of Kilsaran's (a show sponsor) display area?

Lumen

I haven't watched it, but isn't lack of drama the whole point of gardening?

celticbhoy27

Tbh there's such a lack of gardening programmes on TV, I'll take what I can. It mightnt be the best programme and the fact it's sponsored by Woodies inevitably leads to it being an advertisement at times. However they're are parts I enjoy. That guys loch gates were Savage imo

mloc123

The most recent series is terrible. I don't think it was always this bad? We now have the first 1/3 of the show dedicated to some sob story about why the people want/need the garden done. Followed by the same thing from each Judge:

"Is there really enough in this design?"
"Is there enough planting here?"
"You have to be braver with colours"

At the end the finished job usually looks a little shoddy, lots of rough edges and half arsed jobs. The judges will pick it to shreds and at the very end always finish with "oh it is a great garden, you should be very proud".

jellybear

I completely agree woth you Mloc123. I know the whole point is to have this amazing garden with real talking points but I think it needs to be brought back to a more simple design. The focal points this series have been, in my opinion, pretty awful. They are not timeless and encroach far too much on the garden space. I would much rather a classic garden with a variety of plants and planting methods that I can use as inspiration instead of what's been done on the series this year.

mloc123

jellybear wrote: »

I completely agree woth you Mloc123. I know the whole point is to have this amazing garden with real talking points but I think it needs to be brought back to a more simple design. The focal points this series have been, in my opinion, pretty awful. They are not timeless and encroach far too much on the garden space. I would much rather a classic garden with a variety of plants and planting methods that I can use as inspiration instead of what's been done on the series this year.

The Australian outback one... imagine looking out on it in 2-3 years on a dark wet winter day, when the huge rendered walls are flaking and dirty. It looked ridiculous now, before it is weathered.

Same with the Asian themed one... the big oil painting on the rear wall. I would give it one Irish winter.

Live at Three

I was wondering the same thing, is it getting worse each year, or is it just that we're so sick of the reality tv format that we're finding it harder to watch.

On the old shows Paddy used to talk a bit about plants and their needs, but this seems to happen less in the later ones. Maybe plants just aren't dramatic enough for this format.

Why don't they get rid of the garden altogether and just have clips of people crying over emotive music, and teasers about muck and rain that will be coming up after the break?

They could have a format where the producers have to follow around the family with a camera and get a shot of every family member crying before the 5 week deadline. Then shots of cameramen crying into the camera about the fact that they are running out of time.

magicbastarder

i've not seen the show in a couple of years but i found the concept a bit weird. i might be among similar minded people here, but i regard gardening as a hobby rather than something with an end process that show turns a garden into a commodity, and something you will be judged over, rather than a space to relax and enjoy.

mloc123

My wifes workmate had their garden done a few years back, maybe on the first series. I know they had to do a bit of work afterwards themselves to "finish" it. I would like to see it now a couple of years on.

SirChenjin

mloc123 wrote: »

The most recent series is terrible. I don't think it was always this bad? We now have the first 1/3 of the show dedicated to some sob story about why the people want/need the garden done. Followed by the same thing from each Judge:

"Is there really enough in this design?"
"Is there enough planting here?"
"You have to be braver with colours"

At the end the finished job usually looks a little shoddy, lots of rough edges and half arsed jobs. The judges will pick it to shreds and at the very end always finish with "oh it is a great garden, you should be very proud".

This sums it up completely, for me, especially the last bit. The judges arrive, shake their heads, pick faults, then say it's great. I do think the earlier programmes were better than the ones this time around.

Live at Three

And there's the problem of show garden vs. real life garden. The outback one may work as a concept, and would be cool to look at in Bloom for 10 minutes, but does anyone really want to look out over their kitchen sink at it in their garden every day? Especially on those rainy days as mentioned above..

mloc123

More sob stories this week...

I have how all these home/garden improvement shows have to be about the people. I don't care about the "stories"

jellybear

Really disappointed in the gardens this season. Just not enough in the way of planting. To be honest I look at my own garden, which is nothing spectacular, and prefer it to any of the gardens on the show!!
If I was forced to choose, purely based on the colour scheme and the plants used, I'd probably choose tonight's but even still, I wasn't mad about it at all.

mloc123

jellybear wrote: »

Really disappointed in the gardens this season. Just not enough in the way of planting. To be honest I look at my own garden, which is nothing spectacular, and prefer it to any of the gardens on the show!!
If I was forced to choose, purely based on the colour scheme and the plants used, I'd probably choose tonight's but even still, I wasn't mad about it at all.

Tonight's was best of a bad lot. At least it looked well finished.

mloc123

So the guy that works for one of the show sponsors won...

standardg60

Complete sham from start to finish. I wonder are RTE aware, especially as they're making such a big deal of the 'amateur to professional' angle.

Cue controversy ..if anyone cares to read this.

Live at Three

standardg60 wrote: »

Complete sham from start to finish. I wonder are RTE aware, especially as they're making such a big deal of the 'amateur to professional' angle.

Cue controversy ..if anyone cares to read this.

Anyone know who won viewer's choice?

aw

Live at Three wrote: »

Anyone know who won viewer's choice?

The last guy. Family of 4 boys with special needs in Limerick, I think.
Removed the lawn and put in a circular sunken area and a separate trampoline area.

Imo, a ridiculous garden. Removing ALL of the green space for the kids and surrounding the trampoline with a 3 ft concrete wall. A death trap if they come off it the wrong way.