SOME of the gardening portrayed on television is more like joinery, a flower show chief has said.

The president of the North of England Horticultural Society, John Lyles, currently staging Harrogate's Spring Flower Show, said he believed some programmes displayed no more than what he called do-it-yourself gardening.

But gardening, he said, was not just about going to the garden centre, buying a specimen and expecting it still to be living in three months' time when it had not been watered.

Mr Lyles said: "Really, gardening is about propagating, planting, growing and watching things mature."

But he praised the skills of Alan Titchmarsh, who had portrayed basic gardening on television.

The president, speaking at a gathering of guests at the Great Yorkshire Showground where the show is being staged, said the joinery aspect he was referring to was all the "planking" and woodwork that was seen on some television presentations.

He believed this was a phase and there would be a return to proper gardening.

The flower show runs until tomorrow.