Are you kidding? Gardening shows? Never heard of them!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Well, I watch any I can find, but I usually tape them since I can FF thru the parts I'm not interested in. Victory Garden on PBS (FF thru the cooking), P. Allen Smith's show on PBS-we don't get his other one locally, and there used to be 1 or 2 on HTV on w/end morns, but I think they changed the schedule.

I also tape 'New England Dream House' on the New England Cable News station b/c they sometimes will shows gardens. A garden of a friend of mine in NH was featured once.

Somehow I got out of the habit of watching these. The only one that comes to mind that I HATED with a passion was Rebecca's Garden. I don't know if it's even on anymore. There was something about that perky, little voice that drove me nuts. I just seemed so geared towards the suburban soccer mom crowd with all the crafts and children in the garden stuff and of course the addition of lots and lots of peat moss as the answer to all soil related problems. If I remember, the peat moss folks were big sponsors of the program. She should have stuck to being a weather reader on TV.

My rant is done. I feel better now.

Kevin

Ha! Kevin, I'm right there with you. I think Rebecca Kolls *does* actually have some plant knowledge, but you'd never guess it from watching her show. It was SO incredibly dumbed down, I find it hard to believe that even beginning gardeners found it useful.

Actually, there's nothing I'll watch right now. If BBCA or HGTV ever decide to run one of Matt James' gardening programs, I'll be on that immediately. Otherwise... meh. There's nothing of interest or value for me on tv anymore.

Well you got your wish -- Rebeccas Garden was cancelled.

I would say that I enjoyed the crafts she did on the show but the gardening segments were weak.

Having just found Garden Smart and Great Lakes Gardening on my PBS channels, I feel like I am doing GOOD!! We have had Victory Garden consistantly on Saturdays, except for their pledge breaks. I do enjoy seeing the many different things presented. Both the new shows also show different gardens and cover topics of interest. Today I learned about Ginko trees, more than I had ever considered one tree doing! Learned how weeds help or hinder gardeners, ways to control them better, with a speaker right from the MSU garden dept. Also saw and learned how to trim, freehand, to get spirals on bushes for planting interest. Garden Smart showed us an Herb garden with a VERY knowledgable person explaining their methods of reproduction, trimming and growth to keep the garden producing well for the resturaunt that uses the food and herb products. The chef gave recipes for 3 herbs infused and uses of the herbs in syrup. Covered a lot of herb ground in many areas. QUITE worthwhile I think.
Last week they covered green roofs in downtown Chicago, part of the City planning by the Mayor. Integrated a lot of areas in city, like retraining workers in landscape work, using the gardens for parks, cost saving on buildings owned by the city. Reducing roof heat in those buildings and city overall. REALLY great stuff. I know there was some writeup about Ford Company using a green roof in Detroit area on buildings. Hope some more cities take up the ideas.

Everyone watching programs seems to have such different ideas of what is interesting. I have read this topic several times here. There are only so many ways to plant seeds or new plants. New tools don't come along that often. Getting really specific on bed layouts, plants to use, may not be helpful on other growing locations. Can't please everyone. Visiting other big gardens with paid help can be discouraging to others.

I watch whatever I can catch, usually pick up some kind of tip or idea. These 3 are all done pretty nicely, very enjoyable to me. You don't have to love the host, just take in the free information they give away! Run with the ideas to use in your own gardens. Something is better than nothing. We don't get cable, so none of that is available to me. I LIKE my PBS stations!

I also had discovered Garden Smart on PBS awhile back and I liked it a lot. It was a nice mix of visiting and learning. But then it changed. THey changed hosts and format. It was pretty consistently going to far away places and stopped being useful and practical (which is my criteria for liking a show). I should check it out again to see if its changed.

Reluctantly, I do watch Gardening by the Yard and Victory Garden. But I told TIVO only new episodes. Got kinda sick of seeing the same episodes over and over and over again.

I sure wished I had saved some of the old Gardeners Journal and Gardeners Diary. I never got tired of those.

Glad to hear that the DIY shows are bogus. I don't get DIY and I always wondered if I was missing anything when a lot of the shows left HGTV to go to DIY.

Garden Smart can have some good segments, but they seem to dumb things down a bit too much. I am consistantly dissapointed with Allen Armitage - one of the great plants people in the US but his segments are only slightly above fluff. Ditto Stephanie Cohen. I'm sure the main responsibilty lies with the producers trying to keep everything accessible for novice gardeners - but there has to be away to keep it interesting and informative for more advanced gardeners also. And don't get me started on those 10 tenants!

I miss the old Victory Garden and also 'The Perennial Gardener' with Karen Strobeen (sp?).

Much to my surprise it seems like P. Allen (I always call him Pallen) has the best show on right now. I guess I like having a point of view that permiates the show.

Ted

I miss "Gardener's Journal" which used to be on HGTV. Two episodes of "Secret Gardens of..." are airing on HGTV on February 20, from 12-1pm. I have not seen this show, but it sounds good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Secret Gardens

wendy2,

thank you sooooo much for the notification -- I've got my dvr set to record. how exciting! a new gardening show to watch -- during the week no less! :-)

WOW.....I had forgotten about "Secret Gardens". This show was on way back when Gardeners Journal & Gardeners Diary followed each other on Saturdays & Sundays. I really enjoyed it. Well if we can't have Erica then this will do.
Thanks Wendy for pointing this out. You've made my day!
Gloria

Canadian Gardener (on CBC) is worth looking for, though it is shown inconsistantly.

I enjoyed Fresh from the Orchard on DIY, but they stopped showing even re-runs.

I tivo paul james and fast forward through it weekly.

~Chills