By Faith Peppers
Beginning April 1, Georgians will have a new television gardening show created just for them. The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is producing the show in cooperation with Georgia Public Television and Peachtree Film Company.
 The Georgia Gardener is designed just for Georgians who enjoy America’s number one leisure-time activity—gardening. Georgia’s “green industry” businesses are the fastest growing segment of Georgia’s agricultural economy.
The series, debuting on GPTV April 1, will air each Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and repeat Saturdays at 10 a.m.
“Conditions in Georgia are different from Connecticut or Michigan or Florida or California,” says Walter Reeves, the show’s host. “A TV show like this addresses the immediate gardening needs of Georgians.”
Reeves, a horticulture educator with UGA’s Cooperative Extension Service, is already a familiar voice to many Atlantans. He’s the host of WSB 750AM’s top-rated Lawn and Garden Show, which airs every Saturday morning from 7 to 10 a.m. He’s also a frequent speaker on gardening topics and a best-selling author.
Reeves says the show will draw on his heritage as a seventh-generation gardener and his 25 years with the extension service. He’ll also tap the wealth of knowledge among the university’s researchers and extension specialists.
The show, in part, will be geared toward the minimalist gardener.
“We’ll have lazy-gardener tips, as well as new techniques that even gardening veterans will appreciate,” Reeves says. “We’ll have conversations with gardening gurus, for those who want to know what the best minds in gardening are doing.”
The home garden for The Georgia Gardener is being built on UGA’s Griffin campus. But the show won’t stop there. Each show will take a road trip to see what’s going on in Georgia gardens. A Web site will offer in-depth information.
“We will use the whole state as our garden,” Reeves says. “We will go to Vidalia to see onions planted and harvested, and we’ll tell gardeners how to plant their own onions. We’ll go to Ft. Valley’s Massee Lane Gardens, the headquarters of the National Camellia Society, to see camellias in all their glory, and we’ll tell home gardeners how to achieve it in their own
backyards.”
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