A New Gardening Show Is On The Horizon!

Hang on to your trowels everyone because a new gardening show is about to take America by storm!

For years we have been complaining about the lack of good gardening shows on television. Many garden bloggers joined in, especially after all the excellent posts over at GardenRant pointing out how most TV networks just don’t get what we want.

A year ago, there was even a protest among some fellow garden bloggers to change the “G” to lower case in the  HgTV Network. Their point was that HGTV no longer focused on “gardening”. Instead, the network featured primarily home improvement shows. The few “gardening” shows they did broadcast were either about landscaping or instant makeovers. (With the exception of A Gardener’s Diary, with Erica Glasener. We all LOVED that one!)

To read some of those rants, go to GardenRant, Mr. McGregor’s Daughter, Red Dirt Ramblings, May Dream Gardens

And THEN, Tina K organized a whole campaign to let networks know that gardeners are very upset about the current state of gardening shows on TV. There was a consensus among the bloggers that networks and producers did not “get” what we were craving.

Robin over at the Examiner summed it up best by saying she wanted:

“Beautiful shows about real gardens and real gardeners. I want to travel the country and peek into people’s backyards. I want to meet the people who grow all those beautiful roses and find out how they got started. Who was their inspiration? How did they learn about gardening? Where do they look for plants and supplies? How did they figure out how to design their beautiful spaces?”

We all wondered if anyone was listening…

Well, one person IS listening and his name is Joe Lamp’l. (Also known as the Joe behind the Joe Gardener Company)

Being a nationally recognized garden show host and a gardener himself, Joe was feeling the same disappointment and frustration with today’s programing. Both of his own television shows (Fresh from the Garden and GardenSMART) were no longer in production as networks were shifting focus (although episodes are still airing on some networks).

Joe decided to take matters into his own hands by producing a gardening show himself…

And now, his new show “Growing A Greener World” is starting production today in Philadelphia! Episodes will begin airing in the spring on PBS.

At the recent Garden Writer’s Conference, I had a chance to chat with Joe about what makes his new show different.

According to Joe, Growing A Greener World will:

- feature the latest trends in eco-friendly living mixed with traditional gardening know-how.

- focus on telling a compelling story about the garden and the gardener (no instant make-overs folks!)

- include inspirational stories about how some people are making a difference through their gardening.

- offer tips, ideas and even recipes from the garden.

- explore the latest in eco-friendly gardening, water-wise landscapes and sustainability.

- And much more…

Joe’s co-host on Growing A Greener World is Patti Moreno also known as “The Garden Girl”. Patti is all about sustainable living and you can watch her numerous videos on her website GardenGirlTV. She also writes for several magazines including Fine Gardening and Organic Gardening, spreading the word about being sustainable in an urban setting. Together, they are touring the country filming interesting gardens and gardeners everywhere.

And guess what?

Now that the show is in production, I can tell people that I am going to be featured on one of the episodes.

Joe and his crew are coming to film my Urban Edible Homestead and now Charlotte (my Polish chicken) will get her big television debut. Charlotte is all ready primping for the occasion. But Joe did warn me that she will not have any “people” (or “peeps” as she likes to call them) because she is expected to do her own feathers and make-up. No divas in the garden on his productions!

No problem Joe, Charlotte will be ready for her close up. And all the gardeners out there are ready to see what you can put together for us.

All we can say is “Thank you” for taking this on.