wattleblossom, I agree with you! it's getting a bit repetitive lately. I would love to see a weekly segment on natives and not just a look at someones native garden but Id like to see detailed stories on what conditions each ones like, they dont do enough native stories do they?

Yes, GA has been a tad lacklustre of late, but its part of a cycle - I'm particularly critical of the mainstream gardening magazines at the moment. I suspect that flowers on the cover sells more magazines, but surely they could balance the monotonous coverage of exotic bulbs, roses and perennials with native gardens.

I also believe that any coverage of 'feature gardens' should be accompanied by:

a. Age - how long has it taken to get to this point
b. A garden plan, showing orientation.
c. An estimate of the amount of water needed to maintain the gardens current condition.

Each of the big magazines makes a noise about the need for 'waterwise' gardens, only to feature large cottage gardens (complete with lush lawns) and the like - something just doesnt add up. My tropical plants may need more water than many perennials (or not..), but I'll happily compare meter readings each quarter with anyone else in the country - its all about being *selective* in your use of thirsty plants, and leaving the grass to fend for itself. End of sermon :)

Oh Wattleblossom...you must have read my mind! I was just saying the exact same thing to my husband the other night. I realise that not everybody has watched the show for years and years like I have, so I will readily accept some repetition...but fair go!!...enough is enough. Perhaps we should email them or something?? I agree with the others about segments on natives. So may people I know seem to think a native is a horrible, scraggy, worn out calistemon or melaleuca. They have no idea of the wonderful assortment of plants available and how wonderfully they can blend with almost any style of garden. I think with a name like Gardening Australia, they could include a bit of Australia!
Cheers,
Dee.

Thanks everyone for your responses so far. My aim is to compile a list of comments/suggestions that I can forward to the ABC. I don't imagine it'll be the first such list they've received, but as a long time viewer of the program, and subscriber to the magazine, I feel I should do something. At the moment the show bores the socks off me, and here in the mountains in winter, socks are very important!

I have to agree, most of what is shown is the same as I've seen a thousand times on 'Gardeners world' on the BBC on the other side of the world. Most of this information is available in the vast majority of garden books. Australia on the whole is so different and this ought to be emphasised, discussed and demonstrated to the masses. I'd certainly like to see a lot more with regard to Australian natives. With encouragement to Australian gardeners so much could be done to help redress the damage done by developers and some of the farming section by mass planting of native species. Well said Wattleblossom. I have to say though I admire Peter Cundall for his enthusiasm and for his age, I think he does pretty well.
Cheers Jan

Saturday nights edition of GA *did* have a segment on natives, but it didnt do much for me, I'm afraid, and this is where I run into trouble with the 'local provenance' stalwarts.

I think local provenance is crucial for projects such as LandCare, and I applaud their efforts, but the groundcovers shown on GA, while endemic to Melbourne and important for re-vegetating degraded sites, left me cold.

While I will make very effort to seek out as many plants from Central Queensland as I can, many of the plants in my new garden will be North Queensland natives (and some of the smaller plants will be exotics) : I'm creating a *garden*, not re-vegetating North Rocky.

I accept that I have a reponsiblity to ensure that I purchase plants which arent prone to escapology, and that my garden will upset a lot of conservationists, but I refuse to ignore species such as Xanthostemon Chrysanthus because its not a true local. Similarly, if the Byfield Grevillea doesnt look happy in my front garden, it will be removed - I'm not creating a nursery, I'm trying to create a garden filled with healthy, lush rainforest species.

GA showed a lot of promise with the early stories in Gerry's new home in Brissie and his vision for a tropical paradise, but we havent seen a whole lot more of his garden since then (he did install a lawn in one edition - anathema to my own aims) - I would like to revisit Gerry's place and see how that soil of his is coming along :)

Thanks Artie, I was hoping someone would do a critique on Saturday's show.
At least we didn't have to spend much time in the country's most boring vegetable garden, and got to see a quirky, arty and colourful community garden instead.
Yes the show did at least contain a "native" segment, and like you, I applaud all people involved in this type of conservation.
So far I think we're asking for a regular segment giving concise information on growing Australian plants. I'd like to see it move out of the Sydney/Melbourne comfort zone to include plants from WA, NT and tropical Queensland. This would mean some of us could dream whilst others were learning.
I often think there couldn't be a more ugly plant than an unpruned, fungus infected, aphid smothered rose. Yet people plant millions of roses each year because there is so much readily available information about growing them. Knowledge breeds confidence. And as Dee said, the show is called Gardening Australia, it ought to be giving us more confidence about our own plants.

Hey Artie.....I really do agree with you on that point about us growing gardens. It is definitely important to be environmentally aware when we choose our plantings, but I agree...we are not re-vegetating a public or wild area and we certainly have the right to our choice of plants. There is a happy medium isn't there?
Cheers,
Dee.

I did enjoy the native segment on saturday, but Id rather see some specific detail.That native segment was all a bit too vague for me, and not much use to anyone outside of vic really

who is the old guy from queensland? something campbell?, he used to do some great stories but you dont see him much anymore and he seemed to have a good understanding of the differences in climate you find around australia, from qld to sydney to wa. He would be a good choice to do some native segments because he often went in to detail about growing conditions in his stories no matter what he was talking about, and didnt just confine his knowledge to the qld climate. I dont want to see stories that tell me how good a particular plant is then I find out through my own research it's just unsuitable for where I live, which is why I always like that fellows stories, I never felt excluded because he is obviously such an experienced gardener that he knows there are huge differences in climate from state to state, some of the others dont even really go into that detail, I think he would perfect to do a native section.

Isn,t sad that a program called gardening australia
is more inclined to show exotics and how to maintain a lawn when almost all of australia is in drought!!!
I agree with the rose comment wattleblossum as we have may natives that can serve that same gangly appearance ie banksia ericiflora
hehehheh

I guess what I meant to say about roses is that without proper care they can look very ugly. However, we keep buying them because we're always being shown beautiful pictures and being told how to care for them. All we're asking of Gardening Australia is they they do the same for our natives.
As for Banksia ericifolia, with a little care taken at pruning time, the dwarf form (1.5 mtrs) can make a lovely garden specimen. I wouln't be without it's bright orange candles at this time of year. And the birds love it too.

Maybe they could get Don Burke to do an occasional guestspot. He certainly knows his natives.
Tony

In an ideal world we could have a show called Gardening Victoria and another Gardening Queensland etc. etc. for every state. I guess that is never going to happen though!! Still we can dream....
Dee.

Some great feedback in this thread - I only wish the GA people would read it ...

OK, on to my crazy ideas re gardening and the media:

1. I believe that the time has well and truly come for a 'Tropical Gardener' magazine, covering the area from Coffs Harbour north. Apologies to Dee and the rest of the Southern contingent, but many of us live in areas which couldnt be *further* from the English ideal in terms of climate. Even within the area I've prescribed, there are huge variations in climate - the temperate New England climate vs the Sunshine Coast's mild abundance - but the majority of the region will support plants from the subtropics. What do others think ?

2. Les Hiddins has been absent from our lounge rooms for far too long. I know that he shuns the spotlight, but I think he has a lot more charisma than DB and his delivery is priceless. How about a 12-episode series which puts Les into a slightly different setting (everything from rainforests to suburuban gardens), documenting the many positives that natives offer in the noughties, for gardeners, conservationists and survivalists. 'Bush Tucker Man' was a great series, but it had a limited focus, IMO - I want to see entire native gardens, listen to their owners talk about the wildlife that they attract and hear Les recount the natural history of an area in his inimitable way.

OK, enough of my fantasies - as DB found out, there is a lot more to putting a TV show to air than having an idea. I do believe that 'Tropical Gardener' would sell like hotcakes, both in Oz and overseas.

I feel you lot are being a bit hard on G.A. Whats this!! Someone suggesting Don Burke should come back??!!

Have we forgotten the endless posts that castigated Don Burke (some described him as virtually the Devil incarnate)!!

Personally I do not mind either Don Burke or GA. I work in the media and realise that any of these programs are going to eventually be repetitive and for us experienced gardeners, boring at times. In order to get sufficient ratings these shows have to appeal to the widest of audiences and that includes the 'mug' gardener who probably will never get his/her hands dirty. However occasionally we do get the odd interesting bit.

Regarding the preoccupation with exotics. I reckon it is just seasonal. Bear in mind that over the past months, exotics tend to be more in focus; what with Autumn colour, bulb planting etc. etc. (My two and a half acre garden is about 98% native.)

I bet that by the time Early Summer arrives we will have seen a few G.A.'s that have addressed native plants, the drought and a lot more interesting stuff along with the boring repetive stuff.

hi robert, I dont think we're being harsh, the general conscensus seems to be that the show is largely ignoring a whole section of plants, and as wattleblossom summed it up
" we keep buying them because we're always being shown beautiful pictures and being told how to care for them. All we're asking of Gardening Australia is they they do the same for our natives."

I know ive fallen into this trap myself and I have to keep reminding myself that I really have enough exotics and want to increase the natives in the garden, but it's hard to stay focused because all the magazines and shows usually push the exotics. I think GA could fit one segment a week in on natives and show us what is out there and what we could be growing.

Artie, I don't think your ideas are crazy. Sadly though, if we were to have a magazine devoted to tropical gardens, I'd be prepared to bet money that the picture on the cover of the first issue would be of a Balinese garden, and not an Australian one.

picture on the cover of the first issue would be of a Balinese garden, and not an Australian one.

That may well be the case, wattleblossom - as long as it sold well enough to stay in business, I could live with that. Subsequent issues would almost certainly have more local content, with everything from native rainforest gardens to 'dry gardens' for the arid tropics - its not all crotons and water features :)

I thought DB made an interesting point in 'Indigeneous' when he said that the SGAP judges weren't initially keen on Betty Moloney's rainforest garden, as it didnt look like a 'garden' in the accepted sense - this is true of many a 'bush garden' IMO. My profound hope would be that the staff at 'Tropical Gardener' would be a little more adaptable than that.

I think my comment on the banksia was taking for what it was meant to be
I think that if people want a plant that has showy flowers and looks gangly when not in flower you can not beat the banksia and It is gardener friendly no thorns
I have 5 sep. specimens and I adore them but I think we have to all agree that GA cant do what we want because we are (sorely) a minority group in the garden show eyes

To GA credit they did bring a book on natives that did help me finish my native garden
Also love or hate don burke the guy is so passionate about native gardens his garden is living proof of that and have to give some credit to him with my inspiration to do natives
but we will never get a show just dedicated to natives until maybe my generation get of there backside and make one(I am only 25 so go easy)

I believe DB rubs many people up the wrong way because:

a. He only has time for one point of view - his
b. He believes that he is 'right' all the time
c. He often is right :)

I have re-read 'Indigeneous' several times, and I have to say that Don's extremely self-opinionated style is both amusing and annoying. His recent appearance on 'Denton' only drove home the fact that he enjoys the public perception of himself as a bit of a mongrel. When the 'I'm Don-bloody-Burke' high-beam is dimmed, he's as knowledgeable and personable a guy as any on Australian TV, but he seemed to become increasingly painful as the interview progressed. I cant imagine Peter Cundall being so blunt about the fact that he has 'scores to settle', regardless of how poorly ABC TV may be treating him.

True artview but I think if we collectively pursued a show that had only native plants we would need a person who could be like DB
because most TV stations couldnt give a hoot about being enviromentally,culturally or sensitive to our cause because there aint no money in it for them!
but a personalty like DB has a dedicated fan base drawing in that money
In the end it comes down to money
and frankly native flora and fauna dont appeal to the mass market because most people only care about themselves

SO SAD BUT SO TRUE

The view of DB's garden was a weekly pleasure and showed and what could be achieved. The early shows inspired me to plant and learn to propagate local natives and grevilleas: car park ones at first but indigenous ones lately in bowls in the ground and to understand the fast disappearing bush around my suburb and what I could put in my yard. The lifestyle segments were not interesting to me.

I don't mind the Tasmanian veggie patch, the food growing segments are great, especially for the newbys but not every week. The exotic segments and minimalist gardens are a waste of space and I like to know how to combine plants, as there are so many Australian plants to discover. Australian gardens whether formal or informal to have Australian plants.
Weed recognition is very interesting as is water saving, (Only the pots and the birdbath need extra water in my yard and no phosphorous fertiliser is needed and very little of any other and I never dig unless it's to put tubestock in)