oopps....shows :)

Paul James is the only one I regularly watch. None of the others seem to be as interesting.

I wish there were more shows available. IMO too many of them are more about filling in a completely empty space, or tearing up and starting over, then actually working with what you have.

HGTV used to be so promising. It really stinks now. What a wasted potential. I've pretty much given up on television in general, particularly during the summer. I get so much more information right at my fingertips on my trusty computer.

I SO agree Steven, at least in regard to the gardening shows or lack thereof. The decorating shows are hunky dory with me though.

Okay, I'll really date myself and say that the last/best gardening show I used to watch would be the Victory Garden. The original version with the older guy (name escapes me now.) Back before HGTV was even a glimmer in the eyes of a network and all we had was one gardening show, This Old House and Julia Child. Victory Garden was such a pure teaching show and I loved the end when they'd have Chef Marion cook something from the garden. I think Rebecca's Garden comes on here at something like 4 AM and I don't do 4 AM too well, but I like her web site.
-Nan

JIM CROCKETT was his name Nan, and wasn't he wonderful?!!!
"Crockett's Victory Garden" was the name of the show and when he passed away they changed the name to Victory Garden.

Keesha, I'm guessing that Crockett's was the first gardening show ever. It was on PBS. WGBH in Boston transformed one of their own parking lots into a beautiful gardening space of raised beds. Watching his show really helped to hook me on flower gardening. It was mainly about veggie gardening, but flowers were really his passion and he made people realize that by following a few basic "rules", we could have beautiful gardens too.

Keep an eye out for his book (same name as the show) at yard sales or try Amazon. "Crockett's Flower Garden" is a great book too. These were some of my first gardening guides.
Thanks for reviving a very pleasant memory!
Patti

Everyone loves Ciscoe in the Pacific Northwest. He's kinda a celebrity gardener around here! He's an interesting fellow! I've also seen Ed Hume speak a few times at Penninsula Garderns Nursery.

I too watched the old victory garden..and I would have to agree..the decorating shows leave the gardening show in pale comparasion.

You are so right about them being about a clean slate..and major money rather than about gardening itself. More about landscaping..the urban trend..

I tivio.. :) I love tivio..I thought I would hate it, that it would makes us watch to much tv...but it does the opposite..I set tivo and do what I want, then in the evening when I have time instead of watching garbage..I watch what I recorded...I ONLY watch now what I REALLY like, not just what is on when I happen to sit down. It is actually time effective much more than a time waster like I thought it would be.

Like Nan, I watched the Victory Garden with Jim Crockett & then Roger Swain, but seldom see it now. Other favorite shows from earlier years were Thalassa Cruso and "Making Things Grow", and one called "From A Country Garden", with host couple Anstace & Larry Esmond White, a couple from Canada.

Here in Austin we have a very good local show called the Central Texas Gardener. The host, Tom Spencer, also hosts a radio garden show, and has an amazing garden website pulling in gardeners from around the world.

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Spencer's Soul of the Garden

Oh please!!! Did you have to bring this up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HGTV stinks!!!!! Remember about 2003. There were several gardening shows on. Especially in the summer on sat and sun. Especially sat. When it got really hot out at 3pm. I'd go in from 3-5 to watch. You had that woman who always had that big hat on. She would visit peoples gardens. She had that perpetual smirk. Then that lady from canada i think at 4. I think she visted this guy's flower garden upstatate NY. He had a huge mondo huge flower garden. How I wished I taoed these eps. Now HGTV only has a few. I like the british guy comes on 11pm. I like the fast pace cut for a commercial they have. When will HGTV start more gardeninf and less decorating shows!!!!!

Victory Garden, Great Lakes Gardener, Gardening by the Yard and Rebecas Garden. I miss A Gardeners Diary a lot! There was some talk about it comming back to HGTV but I guess it never happened. Too bad.
Wormy

HGTV isn't that much better here in Canada. We had some great shows for a while. There are still 2 that I can catch - Flower Power, which is interesting. The host focuses on one particular flower, and tells it's story. It can be fascinating, and he travels the world to follow the story. Sat. am, he did pelergoniums, and interviewed a hybridizer in Holland.

Sun. am we get Mark Cullen, guru of Canadian Gardening. He to is interesting, in a very hands on way.

I miss Paul James, he was fun, and gave lots of info. too. We had a great show here that has disappeared, although it may be on in the middle of the night!! ;-)) It was called the Secret World of Gardens. The host was a pretty strange lookin' guy, but he sure knows his garden!! It was the amazing photography of bugs, birds, and animals, together with his knowledge and some great swing/jazz music, that really brought the garden to life. And of course, Ground Force, from England, which is gone now, too.

Sigh......

We only have one - Gardening By The Yard. It amazes me we have 800 channels and nothing worthwhile to watch. Seems to me reality shows have taken over. I don't watch TV anymore.

What is there to watch? I miss Erica Glasner so much and the lady from Canda was good too. I just don't find much information or inspiration from anything that is on now. I catch Paul James when I think about it but 11:30 on Saturday is not the best time for me to catch his show. I have a large library of gardening books and I find I go to them more often than not.

The lady from Canada was Kathy Renwald. She and Erica Glasener were wonderful shows. I too loved to come in from the garden to watch them. The "garden" shows on HGTV now are so terrible that I don't even have words. I remember Jim Crockett and loved him and his books but thought there were too many vegetables on the TV show! There's a good thread about him and that show on the Heirloom Plants forum.

Thanks for telling us about the other thread, ginny12 - lots of familiar TV gardener names over there!

Annie

Gardening by the Yard and People, Places and Plants on HGTV

Victory Garden, P Allan Smith, a local show called Almanac Gardener all on PBS

I try and catch Rebeccas Garden but I think I have seen every episode

I love the shows that visit other 'ordinary' peoples gardens like Kathy Renwalds and Erica Glasners

I totally agree with all of you HGTV has been very disapointing with the current garden shows....

Lynne

There's a new one on HGTV that I've watched a couple of times. The Dirt on Gardening. It's a bit simplistic, but I like the host and she does showcase some fun plants and tips. I've caught it on Saturday nights around 9 or 10pm.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Dirt on Gardening

I could have sworn a posted a reply to this thread. Oh well.

I really enjoy "The City Gardner" with Matt James. He's the Brit transforming the Suburban concrete nightmare. Though my garden is huge, I still find his show informative.

I also like Paul James (Gardening by the Yard), Curb Appeal, and Animal Planet's Garden Habitat (good for butterfly and bird garden information).

Most shows on t.v. aren't worth diddly so I generally don't watch. About the only thing I let my kids watch on t.v. is Animal Planet afternoon shows (Jeff Corwin, Corcodile Hunter, Growing Up (monkey, alligator, panda, etc).

I have digital cable with DVR so I can record shows whenever they come on. I usually tape shows such as Rebeccas Garden which is only sometimes good, but on HGTV there really isnt any other gardening shows other then on the weekends, when I watch Paul James (that shows my favorite!) and Outer Spaces, and I also watch City Gardner who is on at 11 on Saturday nights. The only other channel I find garden shows on is DIY Network which sometimes has good shows, garden sense is okay, and so is Ask Diy Gardening. Some other shows on that I record are The Dirt on Gardening(thats a good show) Fresh from the garden,etc. Pretty much all the other garden shows they have, and for some reason they got rid of Begginner Gardener? I liked that show too! Oh well, your right they do need to add more garden shows!

I used to love HGTV when they ran Gardeners Journal and Gardeners Diary. I miss those shows SOOOO much! Wish they were available on DVD. I think HGTV should change its name to HTV.

I bet we could do a reality show. . . . gardeners from garden web all over the world! Let's see; "The amazing Place" or "Seedling Survivor", "Traiding gardens". "So you think you can garden". "The American Gardener" (judges could be Ciscoe, Paul and Rebecca. See what you started Edna. . .I need another cup of coffee!

I like the reruns of Ground Force from the UK. There's one on every weekday at 4pm on BBC Canada that I tape, and they show two on Saturday afternoons, followed by The City Gardener. Alan Tittsmarsh from Ground Force went on to do his own shows, that show on Sunday mornings on BBC Canada at 9am. The first was a 6 program series that show a garden through a year & what to plant & show the progress through a year. The one they're playing now, is called 'How to be a Gardener' and is really great. I tape them & sometimes watch them twice.

I don't get any American shows on the cable here (i.e. no HGTV), but the Brit BBCPrime has a few. My favorite so far has been Alan Titchmarsh's "How to be a gardener". It's a great introduction to gardening and all its concepts, and Alan is a great communicator. Even my strictly-non-gardening-couldn´t-care-less-about-the-garden DH has been occasionally spotted watching the show briefly and conceding it is well done.

I used to like to watch Ground Force when Alan was there too, but since he left it's not the same anymore, despite Charlie and Tommy's efforts. That show has some memorable episodes, notably when they built a garden for Nelson Mandela or the one (post-Alan) they did for a girl school in Marrakesh, Morocco. They did a series in the States as well, wonder if any of you has ever watch it?

"Gardener's World" used to be on BBCPrime but it's been a long time since it has last been featured. They now have a really awful show entitled "Garden Rivals" which I simply abhorr and feel absolutely unable to watch...

Diarmuid Gavin, a.k.a The Irish Leprechaun, used to have a show on Prime as well, but haven't seen him for ages. Diarmuid is not exactly a plantsperson or a gardener, he's a designer who works in gardens. He has some pretty cool and unusual works. The kind of person you either love or hate, but globally I think his designs are very innovative and give a complete new twist to garden design.

Eduarda

I hardly watch any.. I'm fed up with reality type garden shows- These shows seemed more centered on teh reaction of the new owners/gardeners than they do about planting. It's more about instantaneous gardening.

I prefer show like that of the late Geoff Hamilton and also about Alan titschmarsch on how to garden. I like kathy Renwalds show the GArden journal. Grew to dislike Ground Force.. Please -- its' more about instant landscaping than it is about gardening. Although I could say as far as garden decorating is concerned, the City Gardener seems okay. Garden shows should contain good information from soil amendment, to plants, and through trouble shooting.

Ianna

Gardening Shoes---I like the new CROCS!! ;-)!!

Seriously though, i do watch Rebecas Garden on HGTV--actually I record it on tivo and that way I can instantly delete the ones i have already seen instead of watching them again. I tried some of the others on HGTV and was very dissapointed. They didn't teach anything about the flowers or their care, it was just about transforming someones yard over a weekend.
I also remember watching 'Victory Garden' with my mother when I was much younger. It strikes me as kind of funny now, becasue she has never gardened a day in her life but she never missed that show!

I just noticed some Victory garden shows on Saturdays on the local television channel PBS, or one of those types of channels that asks for donations. It's on before Real Simple, and something else. I've never seen it but I set to record it. Just wanted to let all you Victory Garden lovers know about it!

And here's the real problem-the shows come on in the middle of the day on the weekend-when normally I would be out in my garden. OR they come on so late in the evening-again on the weekend-when I am already alseep, exhausted from another productive day of gardening-with any luck at all. I loved Gardeners Journal and Secret Gardens that came on at 5am, I had to get up very early to go to work anyway, and what a pleasure to wake up to those shows.

Instead now they have some insipid show about painting coffee cans to make them into spatula holders and twenty ways to wear a red silk scarf-a show custom made for 20-something junior leaguers. Gag me. It's hard enough to drag my lazy butt out of bed in the morning knowing that I have to go to work, it's even harder knowing that while I drink my coffee, instead of a pleasant half hour looking at beautiful gardens, if I even bother to turn on the tube, all I'm going to see on HGTV is that kinda garbage.

And as long as I'm ranting, I really hate any so-called-garden-makeover where they tear up a yard, lay down 30K worth of paving stone, build a fake "hill" so they can install a "realistic-looking" waterfall that comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere, and then stuff low maintainance shrublets in pinpoint-precision rows throughout the rest of the yard. In some of them, not one blade of grass remains. Excuse me, someone please explain which part of those shows is about a garden?

Yep, the quality of HGTV has gone down the drain. It's as if they now cater to totally uninitiated, brain-dead couch potatoes who just happen to have 60K-80K of pesky cash just laying around gathering dust and getting underfoot. I just hate it when I have that problem, don't you?

Cheryl

Well said seamommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CLAP CLAP CLAP....you nailed it!!

Just got an e-mail from HGTV about a NEW garden show - "Urban Outsiders" done by the same guy that did the show from England "City Gardener" - Matt James only this will be stateside. It will premier on Wed July 12th - 9:30est

I would still like a show that visits established gardens like Kathy Renwald or Erica Glasner did......

Lynne

I agree with seamommy!!!!
I also liked Erica Glasner,Kathy Renwald,and i still watch Paul James,if i'm in the house.I also used to watch Victory Garden with Roger Swain.

I also agree with all of you about HGTV going down the tubes.I get so tired of baby and kids room makeovers,or those shows where they try to make your house look like the million dollar one.Now how many of us plain ordinary folks have a million bucks or want to live like those who do.Remember,they don't get their hands dirty.LOL
Kathi

I watched The Victory Garden for years. The library had many episodes on VHS. I have worked on Saturdays for many years and missed it. Just now got a Digital DVR and have been recording it but the new guy isn't as good as Crockett or Swain.

Local garden celeb Mike Darcy had a great show called In The Garden but the local ABC station cancelled it. A new local show called Garden Time just isn't as good, really nice people but it is all commercial, not touring real gardeners yards which I enjoyed.

I cannot stand Ciscoe. He drives me NUTZ!

I do watch Landscaper's Challenge on HGTV but mostly watch home shows. I do watch Gardening By The Yard, Paul James is a HOOT.