How TV gardening shows get it so wrong

After our lively discussion of the DIY Network's decision not to renew Joe Lamp'l's wonderful "Fresh from the Garden", with 65 commenters chiming in with their own complaints about TV gardening shows, I can't resist relating a recent incident I had with a home and garden show that I won't name (notice the restraint).

The show's producer calls to say they're doing an episode about "edible and stepable gardens" - because they're all the rage these days - and wants to know if I have a client whose "edible and stepable garden" they can film.  So I explain that my clients don't have edible gardens and that "STEPABLE" is a brand name, not a type of garden that's a hot new trend.  I suggest that one type of garden that IS suddenly a hot topic is the lawnless type.  I then e-mailed him lots of examples, some of them even using the creeping perennials now heavily marketed as STEPABLES^TM (always with the all-caps).

Next thing I know he's e-mailing me back, asking for the names of my clients with "edible and stepable gardens" that he could film, as though our 20-minute phone call had never happened!  Back to square one, with me explaining again that creeping perennials are one type of lawn replacement, that that's just one brand, etc, etc.  And he writes back to clarify FOR ME that "stepable" is a commonly understood generic name for a type of garden, "like Kleenex". Uh, no it isn't.  But by this point I'm tired of trying to help someone who's clearly not interested in what I have to say.

Later I related the story to the landscape designer who'd given this guy my name.  The producer had likewise asked HER for clients with stepable gardens and she told him she'd never heard the term! (Anyway, if it were really a generic term, isn't the ultimate "stepable" plant good old turfgrass?) So his insistence on using this term as though it really were a commonly understood word for a gardening craze sweeping the nation made us wonder:  Hey, are they sponsoring this thing?  And is the episode really an infomercial, with edibles thrown in for good measure?  That's the only imaginable explanation for the producer's obtuseness.

THE PUNCH LINE
But wait.  The most entertaining moment with the TV producer came when I asked when they wanted to do the filming.  Get ready for it - mid-March!  Yes, we all know how telegenic our veg gardens are in mid-March, just after we've planted our lettuce seeds and the ground is utterly bare.  Heck, not even creeping perennials look like much in mid-March around here, no matter what expensive brand name they may carry.

Comments

[Reading Dirt]

Mr. Producer should be very cautious of using brand names as generics. His example of Kleenex as a generic would have Kimberly Clark's legal department all over him. Kleenex is NOT a generic -- it's a brand name, and if the company is lenient with writers who use it as a generic, they can lose it as a brand name. Companies take out ads in Writer's Digest just to make this point about Kleenex, Wite-out (NOT "White-out"), Roller Blades, and similar products. Mr. Producer really needs to understand this.

[Susan Harris]

So true, and here's another example: I once referred on my blog to the local gardening "listserv" and got a complaint email from their legal department. So I quickly changed that to "email group" coz it was actually using Yahoo, not the brand named Listserv program. Who'd have thunk?

[John at JWLW]

Maybe if we all keep posting things like this post and emailing them our comments the networks and producers will someday get the message.

[Judybusy]

I had to contain my guffawing when the producer wanted to film mid-March! Here in Minnesota (especially with the snwo strom expected within hours) he would be filming snow. I think that's stepable, if one wishes to go outside.

[Laura]

I live in the very mild-seasoned Central Valley of California where green is the color of winter. Even here, Mid-March is iffy. No snow, sure, but our gardens are pretty lackluster still. How can one produce a show about gardens & know nothing about gardening ?

[Joe Lamp'l]

Well, after we make some headway into getting gardening coverage back on T.V, maybe we can add "producer that actually knows something about gardening" to our wish list. After all, I can wish for anything I want, right?

By the way, as an update to my show, Fresh from the Garden on DIY not airing this year, I have a good news / bad news update. It will air weekly starting March 30th. That's the good news. The bad news; I hope you have Tivo or you're a REALLY early riser cause it comes on at 4:AM. Yikes! Also, if you look at the show lineup, we did 52 episodes and I have no idea why they picked the few episodes they plan to show. Everything you need to know to grow Winter Squash kicks things off March 30. I guess they think winter squash actually grows in winter.

Which leads me to my next wish...would it be too much to ask that the program execs know a thing or two about gardening as well? Yeah, I thought so...

[John]

This is why we have folks showing up at the farmers market demanding apples in May; newspaper articles talking about using elephant ear leaves as platters for your luau buffet table, or lily-of-the-valley as a dinner table centerpiece (both are poisonous); magazines photo spreads showing pampas grass or tree ferns as pool-side decor (one being as itchy as poison ivy and the other having knife blades for leaves, great for exposed skin!). A clueless person as made a bad decision and chooses to run with it rather than listen to anyone else's idea. They are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

You know how you take your dog to obedience class to learn how to say 'good girl' instead of always saying 'bad girl'. We all need to give praise on the few people that are getting things right and point out those that get it wrong or just don't get it at all.

[Susan AH]

The first thing that occurred to me as I read this was how familiar it sounded. First of all—art directors and tv producers generally don’t know anything about gardening. They get creative and drive the rest of us crazy because they typically don’t know the first thing about their subject. They become convinced that they’ve hit upon a ‘new’ idea or an actual trend, and fly with it. Drives me nuts.

[Elizabeth Stump]

There is a blogger I follow who wasasked to come on the Tyra Banks Show. No matter the wonderful and informative facts she wanted to impart, the show producers had an adgenda and edited out any relevant answersand painted her as a clueless bad guy, which she is not. Those producers have an adgenda. Having once worked in Hollywoodin a former life, always be highly suspicious when they keep asking the same question in hopes you'll change your answer to meet their needs.

[Michelle D.]

I see this as an opportunity for an educated horticulturist to obtain a job as a consultant to the cable channel networks that run gardening shows.
When Mr. or Ms. Cable Show Exec gets a brilliant idea to shoot specific type of garden at a specific time all he has to do is run his/her idea across the horticultural consultant and she can educate them if it is a viable idea.

This consultant should also have their fingers on the pulse of the general gardening scene at large so to further add value and benefit to the cable channel network.

A good consultant would enhance the value and the revenue to the cable channel as well provide excellent educational and entertainment value to the viewers.

A win win situation for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, from my experience with HGTV they are short sighted on this end of their business and it sounds like many of the other cable channels are too.
Perhaps it is time to look at their business plans / modesl again so that they can compete and stay above water in this new economy.
Time to RETOOL, ADAPT and TRANSITION if you want to make it in these turbulent times.

[Spidra Webster]

All the more reason to support garden podcasts, garden vlogs and garden bloggers. Sidestep the clueless media altogether.

[Terri]

Ok this is a bit of a tangent- sorry - but its on my mind and slightly related. I got a garden catalogue yesterday with a photoshop picture of a garden on the cover. Each individual plant was photoshopped in to make it look as if they all bloomed perfectly at the same time, which they DON"T. ASters and delphinium, for example. Then after ranting a bit I flipped through and this catalogue was advertising "HARDY PALM TREES" pictured with snow on them. NO zone listed.
It is completely unethical and targeting clueless consumers who watch this ridiculousness on HGTV. UGH.

[Margaret]

Can't decide whether to guffaw or shake my head in disgust. Now I just have a headache. They will never learn...can't imagine the tv execs getting a clue: I don't imagine you get into tv production if your passion is growing things. I guess my vote is with Spidra's comment: support garden vlogs and podcasts, etc.

"Hardy Palm Trees" indeed. LOL! Sounds as though we're back where we started: let the buyer beware!

[DaffodilPlanter]

Now THAT'S a good reason to get Tivo!

[Kate Frank]

I just love this post and its comments... And that's all I have to say about that!

[Chris M.]

Weren't STEPABLES the hottest fad about seven or eight years ago? Do people still buy them?

[Fern]

"I live in the very mild-seasoned Central Valley of California where green is the color of winter. Even here, Mid-March is iffy. No snow, sure, but our gardens are pretty lackluster still. How can one produce a show about gardens & know nothing about gardening ?"

Heck, even in Southern California most people's vegetable gardens would look very young and immature. Is it really that exciting to see small seedlings?

[Susan Tomlinson]

What the heck is a STEPABLE? Am I so out of the loop that I've no clue what this is?

I've given up on HGTV. I am kind of tired of seeing the same swimming pool/TV screen/outdoor kitchen setup installed in the "garden," week after boring week.

I don't want to see shows about people who have oodles of money to burn and no real interest in gardening.

I'd rather be out in my garden, with my teeny little budget and good old fashioned plants and dirt.

[Nikki Smith]

Lousy reporters (and producers) who aren't interested in getting to know the community they cover suck. Hacks make it that much harder for the rest of us to get to know the community because you almost have to repair the damage they've done.

So while this producer totally blew it, I think it's important not to lump all of us media folk together. We're not ALL clueless. :(

[Nikki Smith]

Hi Joe, are episodes of Fresh from the Garden available online somewhere? I just sowed 10 vegetable varieties last weekend and could use all the help I can get. Thanks!

[nobody]

I grew up in Southern California. The climate is quite different from Central and Northern California. It changes pretty drastically just north of LA because of the mountains. So it's a little weird to expect people in Hollywood to have some sort of gut affinity for Northern seasons. If they're planning their filming season based on what they see when they look out their window, they'd be nuts to try to film something on groundcovers after march. November through March are really the only times of year there's a chance of finding naturally green groundcover. Gardeners with a clue plant their annuals in January or February and just overwinter perennials like tomatoes and peppers instead of ripping them out and planting new ones every year. March is also a little on the late side to be thinking about planting winter squash. Even after a few years in New York, I'm still surprised every time it rains between March and November.

Sure, producers are stuck with filming deadlines. The moronic thing they did was contact someone from the North if they had to film in March. They should have saved you in their rolodex for sometime when they wanted to catch something green in the summer.

It's not enough to have producers who are regional experts in plants. What they really need is someone who can figure out what region of the country is growing the right thing at the right time to mesh with their filming schedule, which is not as easy as it sounds.

[Plantanista]

I'm with you, Spidra. Conventional media is over, and for good reason.

Clueless producers, clueless programmers, all leading to the perpetuation of clueless misinformation to gardeners who deserve better.

Times are changing, and we can lead the way with new media and coaching.

[Joe Lamp'l]

I wish Nikki! DIY made ONE episode available through Amazon but no more. You'd think they'd want to cash in on this gold mine. I wish I had a better answer.

[Rich P.]

It's not just hollywood. The first week of October, 2007 I got a call from a photo editor at an upscale regional magazine giving me an assignment to shoot a local garden - this is here in northwestern CT, zone 5/6. Foliage was turning, some was falling, & when I asked what the story was, she told me it was for their spring issue coming out in April '08. I explained the obvious, that the garden was not going to look anything like spring, no way, no how, then arranged to get to the garden asap & shot it the following week, yellow falling leaves notwithstanding. To their credit they changed the story focus & ran it in the fall '08 issue, but mostly because they HAD to. I think John was right - people are uneducated. The same mentality of advertisers who entice us into the supermarkets to buy out of season fruits shipped from South America is responsible for editors and producers who have no problem coming up with some cockamamie garden story idea that has no basis in reality.

[John]

Well its been said before, and again in this lineup of responses - now is the time to change things. People with real talent will move away from the dead media and stake their own claim in the new media. Its a whole new world and the door is wide open.

I'm dying to see what happens.