I noticed a new gardening show, P. Allen Smith garden on PBS and it also seems to be in syndication on an abc affiliate here in the twin cities. So far, the shows seem to focus on classic garden design in the most traditional sense. The guy looks sort of like the John Tesh of gardening, but he has had a few good project suggestions and ideas so I will keep watching. Better than watching reruns of Victory Garden, which has gotten really pretty boring of late anyway.
mm
the one I loved was the Perennial Gardener with a gray haired lady and it seemed to come out of Minnesota or somewhere midwestern. We got it when Direct TV provided random PBS links to the station. Now that the option is gone, I am forced to get my local PBS which is fine most times, but haven't had the privilege of seeing that neat show. I had to stop watching Victory Garden for the first time in decades because I'm almost always scheduled to work on Saturdays. It hasn't the same feel since Roger Swain left and Russell Morash quit producing it. We won't get a flame started about Marion and her cooking. It's been done adn I'm aware that not everyone liked Marion. What I really miss is on Saturdays when I can't see Gardener's Diary with Erica Glasner on HGTV. And since the new year, they've changed the programming. Two Garden Guys which was rather unique, is no longer airing. They've moved up the garden shows in time, and I still haven't seen sign of rerunning Gardener's Diary for people who miss it's first run Saturdays. That it's repeats is fine for now, I've missed a lot of them over the last season due to my schedule, but that it's now airing at 1:30 instead of 3:30 is a bit of a stretch for me. I'll adjust somehow.
With Squire gone on the road now, there won't be thoughtful reecordings of it for me when I get home on Saturdays. And oldest son doesn't always pay attention to the clock when he's plugged in upstairs on the computer.
and I still wish Barbara Damrosch and her husband, Elliot Coleman would produce another "Gardening Naturally" show. It's more revelent now than it ever was. I watched it regularly on Discovery when it ran for those two or three years. .It was one of the best put out besides the Victory Garden at that time. Another good one was Backyard Gardening but Pat Simpson now has moved on and has a show on HGTV about Before and After. He used to be the projects guy for garden things on that show. Don't know what happened to the host of that show either. They come and go......
You should have your own show MG, how cool would that be?
Gardener's Diary is my favorite too, and has been for some time. I missed it last weekend because I hadn't noticed the time change but got it yesterday (I always tape it and watch it later). Gardener's Journal is now being shown at 7 AM Monday through Friday. They're all repeats I think, but it's nice to have the program available again.
Richard in Northern California
I really didn't like either of these to start, but when in dire of need of a garden, I'd watch. I slowly came to love both.
I really like Paul James - light, campy even, with out being dumb or worse talking down to the viewer.
Cheryl
She was great wasn't she! I also really liked the older couple from Michigan (I think). They could be such a hoot!
I can not stand the new show. It talks down to the viewer.
It was better than the current format of Iron Chef meets guy with nervous laugh. Or an numeric scale of 10 being perfect segment, Marion was 4 and the new one is a -10!
Cheryl
Those were the elderly couple from Watertown, NY. I think they were Brits. I don't imagine they are on any more. They were in their 80s 17 years ago! They always tripped over the dogs. I loved them.
Ok - I knew they were on a lake and someplace COLD; I know Watertown, NY.
C
Yeah I was happy to have the gardener's journal back even if in reruns. It's such a great visual show that it is fun to see it again. Cathy Renwald is great at pointing out the little treasures here and there in the perennial border. Last year, I tried Angelica Gigas, although I planted it too late and hope for better luck from a wintered over plant I saved from last year. This year I am trying wild indigo (baptisia) thanks to the show.
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What I don't understand is how they think these generic shows will fit anywhere but California, Atlanta or Canada. I know those are highly populated regions, but there's a whole continent North America!
I'd love if they would have shows more specific for more selections of zones and regions.
I don't mind the make-over garden shows, but when you hear, "she only has a $20,000 dollar budget..." I want to puke. Shit, if I spent that much in my backyard I'd have the Taj Mahal! It always seems that what these people get for their money is sparse, at best.
I'm glad I'm a gardener and still young enough to do a lot of the work, myself.
Victoria
I wouldn't want the job of editing that script down to 60 minutes! ;)
... and how many times do these people pick the WORST of the three designs on that "Landscaper's Challenge" show on HGTV?
The Canada shows work well for much of the northeast and some for the northwest but the southern shows really are only useful for a small part of the south. The Southwest is not shown at all and that is where you really need a good show to point out how to grow plants in an arid climate. I can't believe that places like Phenoix REQUIRE that you have grass in your front yard. That may have changed but that was how it was at one time.
And I agree that the budgets for the make-over shows are unbelievable. It is possible that I have spent that much my entirely life (55 years) but I have a hard time believing it. Some of my favorite plants are those I rescued from the street where people had dug them up and thrown them away. My best trees are those that came up from seed and that I transplanted when there were no more than a foot tall or just let them grow where they were. My little white pine that I rescued from a neighbor when it was nothing more than a candle now towers over the 5' white pines that I planted at the same time. Our city now makes people cut up their yard waste before picking it up so I have lost my source of rescue plants..... Such a waste and such a loss of entertainment.
DKat
Well, the one I saw this past weekend showed a single woman and they built her an outdoor fireplace and painted it this disgusting color yellow. This design was somehow supposed to represent her Italian heritage. I can see terra cotta, but the designer though since he gave her Rosemary 'Tuscany Blue' it was a Tuscan garden. NOT!
Eh.
VYa know what's interesting....when I go into shops now and look at plants which are full grown. I compare them to my full grown plants. Then I look at the price. I have to say that buying plants small and letting time make them sizeable is the single most cost effective way to make your property worth more.
I saw a plumeria the other day as large as mine (8feet with three lateral branches) and it was 200 dollars. I don't know "who" would pay that, but it only took my 5 dollar, 6" pot size plumeria two years to get that large.
I've seen brugmansia in 10 inch pots for THREE HUNDRED dollars! Of course, that is at a very exclusive garden center in Austin called "GARDENS."
So, now I am propagating cuttings and making money for my habit.
As for grass in Arizona, it's the dumbest I've ever seen. That and big, annoying rose gardens using new roses, not even old fashioned. Yick.
My landscape has way more than 75% native plants and everyone who sees it thinks it's a tropical looking garden. There is nothing tropical in it, unless you consider cannas. However, they are hardy perennials here.
So, I suppose we're lucky to have a local garden show on PBS called Central Texas Gardener.
Victoria
Yes, I think what people tend to forget is that the larger the plant the larger the root loss and the longer for recovery. I had always read that smaller plants do better but it really never hit home until I experienced first hand with the 1' tree vs the 5' tree. I still have a hard time believing that the little thing managed to outgrow almost every one of the
5footers I put in that year.Cuttings are magic. My problem has been that I tend to get absentminded and not to baby them as I should that first year and they die off on me. I'm told that you really need to have a special spot put aside just for your cuttings where they don't have to compete with anything and then transplant them. I suppose if you did that for just the first year you would minimize the root damage of transplanting.....
DKat
bah, just think, you wouldn't even have to edit (too much), just put some breaks in and you could film an entire season's worth of show in one sitting!
And considering some of the lame stuff they show on TV these days, you could easily make something 100x better.
"John Catron" wrote in news:400c306f$1 snipped-for-privacy@news.vic.com:
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