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.

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

Neat garden this weekend. Very narrow, long space, the front half of which had been a parking space complete with swing arm garage door in the brick wall on the street. The owner was a bachelor with very little gardening experience, who was looking for a place to hang out with his friends after a night out with his friends. They replaced the door with a roll-up tambor style door, so future owners could easily convert it back to a parking space if they wanted. The took out the brick divider in the middle, then placed simple decking and brick planter boxes on the diagonal. The bulk of the money they spent was on the door and on lighting -- uplighting for the plants and down lighting for the conversation areas. They picked really nice, structural plants that were very low maintenance and cast dramatic shadows on the walls. Wasn't necessarily to my taste, but it was perfect for the owner and turned out really well. You could see how much it added to the current owners enjoyment -- and the re-sale value.

I forgot about Life and The Office. Sorry to hear Life was cancelled. I also like The Beast with Patrick Swayze. I guess I like cop shows. I hate any show that deals with hospitals. I want to avoid them...not drag myself into them...even for an attempt at entertainment. I did watch House a few times and it was okay. I never seen The Sopranos when it was on it's run because I didn't have HBO, but I started watching it on Netflix and went through all 6 seasons last year. Great show. Duane