It's all go...

Hello! I am delighted, cock-a-hoop, over the moon, in fact I've run out of cliches to describe what I am, to be taking over the helm from Monty Don on BBC Gardeners' World, and I wish him all the very best with his future plans. For me, the best of it is that I get to spend my time gardening in all the ways I love - experimenting, trying out new plants and pottering around in a gorgeous garden! I must truly be the happiest gardener in Christendom.

This weekend I went to the NAGS show in Shepton Mallet and I have to say I was extremely impressed by the giant vegetables and the commitment of the growers. What particularly struck me was how few chances you get with something like growing giant veg. It's not like painting or cake-baking where if it goes wrong you can simply make another. With this you only get one crack of the whip per season. Assuming that most gardeners don't get bitten by the giant-veg bug until they're in their forties or so, that only gives you thirty or forty chances to grow a record-breaker.

Among the enormous pumpkins, marrows, carrots, onions and cucumbers were also watermelons, something I've not seen in giant veg competitions before. When I get the polytunnel up on my allotment, I'm definitely going to give them a try. The grower at the show told me he sourced his seed from the States and starts it off quite late, May or June time. He grows plants under bubblewrap inside the polytunnel, which he takes off each morning and puts on again at night. He has to keep the temperature high - 28 degrees centigrade with lots of humidity around the plants. I love the idea of having a go with these - what a great hobby plant.

On a more achievable note, I popped into my local garden centre the other day and noticed that all the autumn and winter bedding is in. I particularly love pansies and viola and I can't tell you how much pleasure I get from the ones we pot up and arrange by the front doorway, with their soft scent and cheerful little faces. My advice is don't leave it until the days are cold and short to plant them though as freezing temperatures stunt the roots. Get them going while it's still warm and plants bulk up sufficiently to shrug off slugs and make plenty of flower through winter.

A final thought... After filming on Friday was spent relaxing over a few bevvies so I was naturally hoping for a lie-on on Saturday morning. However I had forgotten the builders were coming early to help me finish putting up the walls on my driveway, made from all the recycled stone left over from Gardeners' World Live. I'd spent the early part of the week putting in the foundations (a job they wouldn't do!) but I'd forgotten to order the sand and lime they needed to glue the stones in place. Hence 8.30am on Saturday found me a bit bleary-eyed at my local builders' merchants trying to pick up sand last-minute in the only way possible, expensive 25kg bags.

Now people say that fame can have unwanted consequences but when the kind lady behind the till recognised me as being on Gardeners' World, she said "We don't normally deliver on Saturday but just this once we will, provided you'll be there to help get it off the truck and don't mind shovelling it off the road." If that's not living the high life, I don't know what is!

See you Friday on BBC 2 at 8.30pm!