By ABBIE JURY

I had a wry smile last week when I read in the Daily News about transport operators taking district councillors around New Plymouth to experience their difficulties in negotiating the obstacles created by new-look city design.

We seem to have handed over many facets of urban design to qualified people who don’t always appear to be blessed with common sense.
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By ABBIE JURY

At last, dear reader, I have managed to get back in the garden. Don’t get me wrong – I spend the better part of all day every day working with plants but, of late, most of that time has been spent in the nursery, not the garden.

Mark, who had been watching Take A Leaf on the Living Channel, was suggesting we could do a similar format TV show here. Mimicking the gentle British commentary, he had himself located in the vegetable garden, Lloyd demonstrating lawnmower maintenance, and “Abbie is preparing her feature plants”.
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By ABBIE JURY

Wow! Isn’t it great to be a winner? This is the gardening equivalent of the Olympics or the World Champs and on this country’s first attempt, we win a coveted gold medal.

Do not let the fact that this success was relegated to page five in the newspaper (albeit with a colour photo) detract from this wonderful success. Let us give credit to the designers, the backers, the workers and all who made this happen.
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By ABBIE JURY

When I went into print a couple of years ago being very critical of Maggie’s Garden Show on TV, it frankly never occurred to me that the replacement programme that was to come could be so much worse.

Ground Force, the new Friday night gardening show, makes us think that maybe Maggie Barry was all that stood between us and the philistines and we should thank her in retrospect for attempting to keep some hint of horticultural merit.
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