Gardeners’ Question Time - Episode 1: April 1947

Available for over a year

To mark the 70th anniversary of Gardeners' Question Time, listen to the first edition of the programme chaired by Bob Stead and broadcast on 9 April, 1947 on the Northern Home Service. NOTE: This episode is the original broadcast from 1947 and has not been edited. Some of the advice is very dated and should not be followed, especially in relation to the chemicals mentioned. Recorded at the Broadoak Hotel, Ashton-Under-Lyne, the programme was called How Does Your Garden Grow – a Gardeners' Question Time. It featured a panel of Bolton Park Superintendent Tom Clark, gardeners Fred Loads and Bill Sowerbutts, and Manchester University's Dr E. W. Sansome. An audience of local gardeners put questions to the panel much as they still do today, but the programme provides a fascinating insight into the problems facing amateur gardeners in the post-war 1940s. Questions include: how to combat red spider mite and pearlwort, how best to pollinate tomatoes, and uses for soot. Produced and presented by Bob Stead.