Who Wants To Know More About Gardening By The Yard?

“Gardening By The Yard,” a half-hour gardening advice program, is one of HGTV’s most popular gardening shows. Master gardener Paul James hosts the show, and he keeps things light. James offers home gardeners practical solutions to problems like poor soil condition and pest control, using a humorous, casual style that makes the show as fun to watch as it is informative.

1994: A Channel Is Born.

Home and Garden Television, also known as HGTV, launched as a new cable channel in 1994, proudly proclaiming its slogan, “Start at home.” The network is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and its sister channels include the Food Network, Fine Living, DIY Network, and Great American Country.

As its name implies, HGTV programming devotes itself to activities done around the house: landscaping, gardening, remodeling, redecorating, organizing, crafting, and so forth. HGTV programming currently includes more than 80 active shows and an assortment of seasonal specials.

1996: A Show Is Born

Gardening By The Yard has been part of the HGTV lineup since 1996, with host Paul James also serving as the series’ creator, writer, talent, and senior producer. James films every episode of Gardening By The Yard almost entirely in his backyard.

According to James, the other gardening shows he’d watched when he was younger showed perfect, pristine, bug-free gardens that made home gardeners think they must be doing something wrong, because their yards never looked like that. Not only did the gardens look perfect, the hosts also looked perfect, never breaking a sweat, with every hair in place.

When he created Gardening By The Yard, James decided to make his show as close to real life as possible. The show’s dedication to reality and James’s oddball personality have made the show a hit.

Gardening By The Yard’s host began gardening in 1978, when he and wife Carrie became first-time homeowners. James took gardening courses in college and was certified as a Master Gardener in 1983.

Before creating Gardening By The Yard, James owned a company that specialized in corporate comedy.

Gardening By The Yard – The Show Today

In classic episodes of the program that were filmed outside of James’ backyard, Gardening By The Yard visited a California garden that looks like a coral reef and an expert on vines in Ft. Worth, Texas. Other episodes of Gardening By The Yard airing this season focus on “green” (eco-friendly) gardening, feeding birds, using spreaders and sprayers, gardening in micro gardens, and safety in gardening.

Get A Gorgeous Garden With Gardening Catalogs

Gardening catalogs are what gets gardeners through long winters. Every gardener knows the familiar withdrawal symptoms gardeners get when the first frost of fall hits. For gardeners, who love to putter around outdoors, fall and winter mean long months spent inside, while fallen leaves, snow, and mud cover the once-beautiful landscape.

Along come the holidays: first Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and gardeners have changing leaf colors and forecasts of snow to take their minds off the bulbs and tubers lying dormant under the soil. Then, miraculously, the letter carrier delivers the first gardening catalogs of the season, and, even though winter has just arrived, gardeners know that spring is coming soon.

The Burpee Gardening Catalog

Burpee is the granddaddy of gardening catalogs. The Burpee gardening catalog was created in the late 1800s when company founder W. Atlee Burpee added vegetable seeds to the livestock almanac he had been publishing for years. Atlee Burpee had a passion for innovating and improving livestock and nursery stock through breeding, and early Burpee gardening catalogs included a new cabbage called Surehead, an improved cabbage, Long Orange, an improved carrot, and new radishes and green beans.

The modern Burpee gardening catalog offers an amazing array of vegetables, annual and perennial flowers, herbs, bulbs, seed starting equipment, and gardening supplies. During the off season, the Burpee gardening catalog offers wreaths and greens and gifts for gardeners.

The Smith & Hawken Catalog

The Smith & Hawken catalog occupies the opposite end of the spectrum of gardening catalogs. This gardening catalog has been around since 1979. It is loaded with high-end garden furniture, accessories, and gifts. Some of the plants Smith & Hawken sells are miniature cypress trees in planters, priced from $29 to $39; a variety of bulbs for indoor forcing over the winter; and all kinds of orchids to grow indoors.

Smith & Hawken sells dozens of gifts that any gardener would love, like tool caddies, gardening clogs, pruners, and gloves. The Smith & Hawken gardening catalog also includes several interesting weather-monitoring gadgets, which are becoming increasingly popular with all the interest in climate change. Smith & Hawken even sells firepits and outdoor games, like croquet and bocce ball.

Specialty Catalogs

Specialty gardening catalogs are no-nonsense publications from companies that do just one thing, and do it well. Among specialty gardening catalogs are books dedicated to water gardens, rock gardens, tulip gardens, greenhouse gardening, indoor gardening, and other niche areas.

Gardening Climate Zones Are A Selection Guide

Some plants grow better in warm climates where other plants will immediately perish. A gardener can waste a lot of money if they do not buy the right plants for their landscaping endeavors. Gardeners can find some great help in various places so that they produce a great garden with few mistakes. Information on the gardening climate zones are a great help to amateur and professional gardeners. The information on the gardening climate zones is available from several sources and gardeners should always consult the gardening climate zones. Most nurseries and garden centers will have information on the gardening climate zones, and this information is also available on the internet or from the local library.

The gardening climate zones divide the country into sections according to the normal temperatures of an area. The gardening climate zones also provide information on the amount of rainfall that usually falls in an area. Some internet sites have interactive maps that provide a wealth of information on the gardening climate zones. Some of these tools allow the user to click on a section of the map to get current information that one can use for buying and planting their garden.

Gardening Climate Zones Provide Information For Success

A beautiful garden takes great effort and planting some great flowers will take time and sweat. If these plants are placed at the wrong time, they might whither quickly in spite of the effort. Some plants will thrive in warm weather and fail once the cold sets in. A gardener might be very disappointed when plants are dead soon after a great effort was made to place the plants. The gardening climate zone is coordinated with most of the plants that can be found in the local nursery.

Many plants now come with great information for each gardener. This information usually includes tips on the placement of the plant for optimum growth. Some plants will quickly die in direct sunlight so many plants have information on placement on the label. Many plants also have information about the appropriate gardening climate zone that can be used in connection with the maps on the same topic. Most gardeners will soon learn about their own climate zone, and they can use the information on the label to buy appropriate plants. The information from the gardening climate zones is usually about normal conditions. No gardener can prevent too much rain or extraordinarily hot weather. If extra harsh conditions occur, the gardener might lose many plants through no fault of their own.

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