Eljay meets celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock from Ground Force!

...we also had a 3 course lunch with the lovely Ms Dimmock and front row seats to an informative question and answer session! 

All at the Hollybush Garden Centre in Shareshill.

One of many books the BBC produced from the ultra
successful series ( pic taken from Pnterest)

For anyone wondering why I was so excited about this:

Ground Force was a British garden makeover television series originally broadcast by the BBC between 1997 and 2005. The series was hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh and was produced by Endemol for the BBC.
(Thanks Wikipedia!)

It was a brilliant show, one of the first makeover type shows to be all about the garden. Charlie was seen as a bit of a sex symbol for a being a down to earth gal on the garden. A real role model for young gardeners like me. The transformations they did were astounding and the show featured hosts who genuinely got on and had real banter. 

I entered a competition to meet and have lunch with the lovely Charlie Dimmock and to my delight, I was one of three couples who won! As my hubby isn't into gardening I could think of no one else to take but my best pal and green fingered partner in crime, Kerry.

We were like little kids when we walked through the doors to meet her...not knowing what to expect. 

First thing we noticed was what a smiley, lovely person she was and as down to earth as she was on TV. She was dressed for gardening, no silly contoured makeup job ... just pure woman. I liked her instantly! She greeted us like friends. 

She sis the Q&A session first (of which we got front row seats!) and some of the questions and answers were brill. 

Charlie doing her thing! =)

A few stood out to me .

Slugs and Snails...

How do you defeat them?

According to Charlie...it's not the big fat slugs that are the worst enemy, as actually, they feed mostly on rotting matter. It's the tiny little ones who live just below the surface of the soil. She's not a fan of slug pellets as they are not good for other animals who eat them. The best way to get rid of them? Hoe hoe hoe! cultivation of the soil is the best way to keep them down. I found this fascinating. Puts a bit of a downer on the NO-DIG methods....but there you go!

Cats...

How do you deter them?

Charlie is an animal lover as am I. The subject of cats is actually banned on some of the facebook groups I'm in as it causes huge arguments! Charlie suggests a water pistol and a stake out. Cat doesn't get hurt, just startled and as they hate water it should help them to not see your garden as a comfortable place to do their business. It may take a few goes...so I suggest a comfortable hiding place with a flask of tea and a pack of Hobnobs.

Ponds...

What do I need?

Much to my delight, Charlie says with the right mix of items you don't need a pump and filter. This is brill for allotment people like me! 

You need a good mix of oxygen plants, a beach area or something for wildlife to climb in and out, ornamental grasses for wildlife to climb up onto and surface cover to stop algae. It has definitely got me thinking about my wildlife pond and how rubbish it really is! ha ha. So there will be some development here.

Deciding what to have for lunch.....steak?
 Don't mind if I do!

Next we went off to lunch...the other couples who had met were lovely, especially our adopted Nan and Granddad. They were in their eighties, the second couple were in their 60's and we were in our 30's so it was a nice mix of people. Charlie had a lovely chat with us over lunch. She told us funny tales of her animals including her bossy pet dog.

After lunch Charlie did a planting demonstration with Westlands Plant Magic, she is currently on TV adverts at the moment promoting this. We got some free samples of the product and it looks fantastic. 

After she planted up the lovely arrangment, she played a game. The first person who could guess one of two flower names her mother almost named her when she was born...would win the arrangement. 

After many guesses of all flower names charlie gave a clue. She said the flower was yellow! I was dying to should out Daffodil but I was beaten to it by a lucky lady. 

The answers were Dandelion or Daffodil. I quite like both!! 

We ad a lovely day and Charlie is a fabulous person. Was so pleased to meet her. Thank you also to Westlands and to Hollybush for a wonderful day. 

Charlie, me in the middle and Kerry