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leekle2mane

Do you watch gardening shows?

And if so, which ones?

About a year ago while watching some short videos from UF/IFAS on youtube, I took a chance and clicked on a link for "How to be a Gardener", a British show presented by a fellow named Alan Titchmarsh. I found myself intrigued by the show and watched it from the beginning of the series to the end. There were a couple things I liked about it. In the show, he breaks down various gardening concepts and makes it, as he is prone to say, 'obvious'. And while most of the plants he used would be turned into toasted crisps here, the techniques were universal really. Another thing that I couldn't help but notice was the lack of product placement/endorsement. In fact, many of the tips through the series were how you could do things on the cheap without having to turn to big name products.

Since then I have watched other British gardening shows - Gardener's World, Life in a Cottage Garden, Around the World in 80 Gardens and others. And while there might be a little product placement in a few episodes, these shows all seem to point out how to garden naturally without the use of chemicals or padding the pockets of huge industries. And it is refreshing to see. I'm not trying to say the US gardening industry is evil and should be avoided, but it is nice to see cheaper and even 'free' alternatives.

Now it's been a few years since I have had cable or satellite, but when I did, most of the shows on DIY and HGTV were more about showcasing what others have done, using huge teams of professionals to create dream yards and loads of 'get this if you want this', with little to no information on 'how' to do things. Indeed the last few times I have been to my In-Laws and watched DIY, I have encountered almost nothing but marathons of reality shows where the watcher really learns nothing. But maybe I am just watching at the wrong times, usually evenings, or the wrong channels. When I was younger, there were a few good nature/garden shows on PBS, but I did not really see any when we last had satellite.

So I am curious if any of you have any favorite garden shows, preferably ones where you can find tips and learn things from.

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