UPDATE: BritBox and the Return of Gardener’s World.

UPDATE: (Friday, March 8th, 5pm)

I reached out to the nice folks at BritBox regarding when the new episodes of Gardener’s World 2019 would start airing. Their response was quick, but not very specific:

I’ll confess to being a bit disappointed that there isn’t already a plan for the roll-out of GW. It was never explicitly stated on their website that it would be, but the implication was certainly there. Maybe that was my wishful thinking taking over.

The good news is that the answer is “soon” rather than “we don’t know”. I’ll let you all know if I hear more soon and I know you all are as disappointed as I am that the answer isn’t “tomorrow” or “tonight”. Perhaps some skillful YouTube searching is in order for tonight before the BBC takes all of them down… good luck!

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The annual return of Gardener’s World is an announcement I relish. Yes, for the obvious reasons of sophisticated, educational, beautiful, and enjoyable gardening programming. But also because, while the March start of the show means they’ve begun gardening and growing in earnest, for me it signals the very start of getting outside and starting the cleaning up process. Its as if Monty, Nigel, and Nell are waving the green flag, signaling me to start my gardening engines. Episodes start up again on the BBC on March 1st! HOORAY!

I’ve long used a paid VPN to stream UK television. We’ve had issues with our long-time provider just not cutting the mustard. So I switched to a new VPN but the BBC is onto them and it doesn’t work for their iPlayer. Harumph. I’ve long said I would pay good money (and have via the VPNs) to just watch British TV without all the hassle (the VPN was definitely a hassle). Many have suggested Acorn TV as a solution, however they don’t stream shows shortly after airing and key shows like Gardener’s World, Chelsea Flower Show coverage and Love Your Garden, etc. aren’t on their docket. Harumph Part Two. But then I stumbled across BritBox on someone’s gardening blog and it was the miracle cure I was hoping for! YAY!

Now, BritBox isn’t free. Its something like $6.99 a month or $5.80 a month if you subscribe for a year. And as far as I can tell Love Your Garden is on there and I’m not yet 100% sure that the BBC’s coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show will be either (it was last year, but coverage is not saved for viewing right now). But Gardener’s World is absolutely on the list and I’ll be honest, the price of a Grande Fancy Latte per month is a steal.

This isn’t an ad, I promise, but I do want to make sure you all know about any new/easier ways to watch the only genuinely good gardening television out there. Some episodes of GW are available on YouTube (but often don’t stay up long) for free but I get too easily frustrated by this process of searching for episodes, so I’ll gladly fork over a few bucks to make it easy. Especially if I can watch old episodes on demand!

I hope you find this helpful! I’ve been watching past episodes and so far, it is going well!