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Alabama Gardening

garden TV shows again...

15 years ago

Anybody else watching any of the recent garden TV shows lately?

I kind of like to catch one now and then to help get through the winter,

and get ideas sometimes.

Thers four different ones on Alabama public brodcasting on one of their

digital channels, so more than there used to be.

Not that y'all care, but heres my opinion of them, curious what y'all think.

First, I really like a show that comes on Georgia Pub. broadcasting (seems better than APT) called Gardening in Georgia, which you can watch (old episodes) on www.gardeningingeorgia.com. The information is all relevant to our climate, and Walter Reeves the host is pretty good & funny.

On APT I like both "Cultivationg Life" and the "Victory Garden", although I

miss the old host Roger Swain. Cultivating Life has some pretty clever crafty ideas that even I can do.

I could do without "P Allen Smiths Garden Home." Something about his manner and the way he keeps saying the same phrases about his "garden rooms" gets on my nerves.

Theres another one called "Garden Smart", but I don't usually see anything new or learn much from that one either.

Theres always good magazines and seed catalogs until spring, thank goodness.

Todd

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Comments (7)

catbird
15 years ago
Thanks for this information. Gardener's Diary on HGTV was always one of my favorites, but now that I'm retired I'm not up by 6:00 A.M. when it comes on and our VCR doesn't record any more. :-(
sundog7
15 years ago
It's hard to beat Gardening By The Yard, but it comes on so danged early! I like to sleep late on Sunday mornings. :)

HGTV should go ahead and change its name to HTV. Not much garden left there.
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Hi! There are 3 on PBS that I like to watch-Growing a Greener World, Garden Smart, and the Victory Garden. For broadcast times in your area you can go to PBS.org. Rhonda
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In this economy I think many folks will be staying home more and will look to ways to save on food. Vegetable plantings is a great way to go. I learned many of my techniques simply watching shows like Gardening Naturally (thanks for helping me recall the name of that show Marg). In that show I learned more about proper composting, the use of manure, seaweed of all things, and other stuff. Sure it certainly may not appeal to all audience, but it was very imformative. Too bad we no longer have such shows. The new Victory Garden - well it's simply rehashed segments with a new host - Jamie Durie, a well known garden designer/landscaper from Australia. The show focuses mainly on designing on a grand scale - although it does emphasis green techniques, water conservation, etc.. It does have a small segment with Kip as the actual gardener and Chef Michel cooking the organic way. However it just doesn't have that 'Organic feel' to it. It seemed too Hollywood or too New Age. In my opinion -- good eye candy, not much on substance. There is good show on PBS - called Cultivating Life. While it is short, it does have everything, from building trellis, to planting, to cooking. It's good enough - although not close enough to the shows of the past. I've pretty much given up on watching shows on TV. There's hope however, and it exist online. Look at such places such as Youtube and someone is most certainly going to upload a specific gardening technique. Ianna
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As much as people might be wondering how in this day & age this is possible to not have a pbs station, it is entirely possible and unfortunate and I feel your pain as I briefly lived in an area that didn't have PBS either. If you want to watch these programs that badly there may be some things you can do. Depending on how far you are from Atlanta, a good outdoor directional tv antenna and amplifier or you could subscibe to satellite programming and lie about your address and say you're in atlanta. Of course even in atlanta with a dish you need to have two dishes and apply to get the second dish and that's assuming you're still not too far away as the local channels are spot beamed and it's not always possible to pick them up if you're too far away.
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Interesting thread. We cancelled cable a year and half ago now because there was "nothing on". We now receive a total of 4/sometimes 5 channels and our viewing has dropped remarkably. I can't remember the last time I watched "Victory Garden"! There were a couple of shows I used to get a kick out of but it was so long ago now I barely remember them. One was with a woman named Karen Stro-something, I think she was a painter, too. And then was one with Barbara Damrocsh and Elliot Someone (they're well known as garden writers and I've butchered her name and spaced his right out). I've never seen People, Places, and Plants, but like the magazine. I'm with most you, though... too much yakety-yak, fluff, and the same old material, not enough "smart stuff"... like botany, design theory, unusual combinations of "choicer" plant material. I've felt the same about home dec. shows for years, too!
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razorback33
15 years ago
It stands for Home & Garbage TV!
I deleted it from the lineup on my TV's, so that when I surf the channels. it no longer stops there.
They claim that no one wants to sponsor gardening shows anymore, at least that's their story!
It's all about money!
Rb
tsmith2579
15 years ago
But why does HGTV have the same shows over and over with different personalities and different show names? We have home improvement shows on Saturday morning, four in a row. We have "appraise my house" on Sunday morning. We have 4 or 5 interior design shows with different personalities. If we viewers would all get together and send HGTV an e-mail telling them we will not watch their DIY and design show and send an email to their sponsors telling them we are not going to watch HGTV or buy their products, we might get some results.
cottagegirl_tn
15 years ago
I am also aggravated by the lack of gardening shows! The times they have them on are ridiculous. I made myself learn how to use our vcr just so I could catch them! I agree with the person who thinks P. Allen Smith is a farce. His shows are more about building that danged house and cooking segments that take up 1/2 the show. If he does have an interesting topic like say, rose propagation..he might spend 5 minutes on it!! Oh, and FYI, I just found out you can watch whole segments of Gardening by The Yard online. I love Paul James's show!
Jen
sundog7
15 years ago
It's not about to get any better. I read in today's paper about H-TV's new programs for January 2009.

"Paint Over! With Jennifer Bertrand"
"The Unsellables"
"Desperate To Buy"
"Income Property"
"The Property Shop"
"Dear Genevieve"

Why not just call it "The Real Estate Channel"? Makes me wish we could buy cable television Ã la carte. Channels like H-TV wouldn't survive very long.
User
15 years ago
I definitely would like to see more imaginative gardening programs on TV. More about the doing part, and less about the decor of the garden. Maybe choosing plants compatible with each other and with your soil and climate.

With the economic downturn, the big concern is selling homes as much as it is about finding another job. So I don't see the program lineup changing much. I do get a lot of good ideas from HGTV which I hope will help us sell my hubby's home up in Massachusetts, one of these days after the market gets back on its feet. ....sigh....Meanwhile, I love gardening with tropicalesque plants in a hot climate.

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