On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 14:39:45 GMT, "Vox Humana"
wrote:

Thank God! Most of the "gardening" shows on HGTV send in a crew that slaps
together a very crude garden that has little appeal to me and one that I
can't image lasting more than a couple of weeks. The "Landscaper's
Challenge" show is interesting, but I agree that they only do projects in
southern California and the budgets are enormous - not a situations that
most of us can relate to or learn from.

I suppose like many media enterprises, both gardening magazines and TV
shows are directed toward select audiences. Some of the fancy-shmancy
displays may be just the 'blueprint' one person needs to hire a
landscaping firm and say "I want it to look like this." For others, it
might be inspiration to try something on a smaller scale -- maybe just
an introduction to a new tree, bush, or flower. My (rich)
sister-in-law said she'd planted 300 spring bulbs one day last fall.
Well, not exactly. She'd hired a garden center to plant 300 spring
bulbs. She's probably not interested in the details of how deep to
plant, and when/how to fertilize. She just wanted some spring flowers
around the place -- perhaps the way she'd seen in a magazine or on a
TV show.

In my mind, there's also a distinction between landscaping and
gardening. 'Landscaping' is an architectural enterprise that assumes
successful growing; 'gardening' is much more down-in-the-dirt.

It's always (well, usually) at least entertaining to see a tatty bare
lawn and 2 bushes transformed into an attractive vision of flowers,
shrubs, paths, and arbors, whether or not one can afford such a
transformation. I enjoy looking at (not buying!) 'decorating'
magazines which feature $5,000 chairs and $100/yd drapery fabric, as
well as DIY instructions on making a kitchen light fixture out of a
collander and $4 of electrical parts. I'm never going to have a $5,000
chair, but it's interesting to know what one looks like. :-)