Gardening expert Simon from the Walking Talking Gardeners YouTube channel has taken aim at Gardeners’ World host Monty Don, for advice he claims is ‘terrible’
Gardeners are constantly inundated with advice on the dos and don’ts of horticulture, from planting, to pruning, to mowing. But, according to Simon from the Walking Talking Gardeners YouTube channel, much of this guidance is “terrible,”.
Simon has taken a swipe at Gardeners’ World’s Monty Don for offering what he claims is scientifically inaccurate advice. Monty had suggested that gardeners delay mowing until July to help pollinating insects by letting the grass grow.
However, Simon rejects this advice, stating: “These plants are wind-pollinated. They do not produce pollinating insects.” He added: “The only way it would be [true] is because if you’ve got a load of weeds in your lawn…if you’ve got weeds in your lawn, well, that’s down to you.”
He acknowledges that while long grass can indeed provide a habitat for insects, not all of these insects are desirable. He explains: “One of the creatures that perhaps you would not like to have in your garden are ticks… They love the long grass. The longer you leave it, the happier they are. Your pets can be covered in them; biting, sucking all the blood out of them.”
Ticks pose a threat not just to our pets, Simon warns, but also to humans, as they can transmit a variety of serious illnesses including Lyme disease and the potentially fatal tick-borne encephalitis.
He goes on to say that if you’re genuinely keen to help pollinating insects during spring and summer, you should “get rid of your lawn and put in a wild flower meadow”.
Simon points to another hazard of letting grass reach its maximum height – the peril posed by grass seeds: “They’re little sticky, sharp, horrible little things that if you’ve got pets such as dogs and cats, they love to stand on them, and get infected paws.”
He warns that grass seeds can actually embed themselves in an animal’s flesh, leading to ghastly wounds so severe he worries sharing images of the harm would see him “kicked off of the internet”.
“My next piece of terrible advice,” Simon continues, “is to do with watering your tree ferns”.
Tree ferns, he explains, have developed to flourish in regions with extremely heavy downpours: “The whole being of this plant is to take in water and hold onto it as best as it can.”
He notes that some folk reckon gardeners must help tree ferns adapt to Britain’s climate conditions: “You’ve got to toughen it up so that it can survive, and that meant you don’t water your tree ferns through the crown.”
Taking aim at the horticulturists at RHS Wisley for being especially susceptible to this blunder, he states: “You can water [your tree fern] just at the base as you would do your regular plants. But really that is not what this plant requires to grow well.
“If you don’t give it additional water through the crown, that crown is going to start shrinking up. Year on year, you’re going to get a reduction in that canopy.”
He cautions about the consequences of neglecting proper watering, leading to less lush foliage: “You will see smaller fronds, and fewer of them,” and warns against following certain detrimental practices observed elsewhere.
“Over time, your plant will look like all those other plants that they have at Wisley, who have some bizarre kind of management techniques that really ends up killing them all off.”