pouring one out for the "G" in HGTV

...and some great alternatives, instead!

“I’m not going to allow my inability to do everything undermine my ability to do something.”
— Cory Booker

Growing up in a rural part of Massachusetts, our street had no cable television. A sleepover at a friends’ house meant that I could watch Rugrats, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Secret World of Alex Mack, Ren and Stimpy, Hey! Arnold, All That, and more cable TV shows that I knew of, but couldn’t watch at home. Instead, I was on that PBS game —Are You Being Served?, Mr. Bean, Mister Rogers, Sesame Street, Zoboomafoo, Reading Rainbow, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, The Victory Garden…honestly, looking back at it, PBS had (and still has! Save public broadcasting!!!) some fire programming.

But once I got a taste of cable as a teenager/young adult, HGTV had my heart and soul. There were always plenty of home renovation shows that I’d dabble in, but I particularly loved Gardening by the Yard with Paul James, The City Gardener with Matt James, and Curb Appeal.

We cut our cable cord for good back in 2011 and never looked back, opting instead for Netflix. You know, when it was still inexpensive and had some old shows and movies that you actually wanted to watch, instead of the current format: a firehose of new content that you don’t really want but that they hope you guzzle down anyways. Bread and circuses, everyone!

Now, because I’ve been without cable for so long now, I think one of the most simple joys in the world is to plop down on a hotel bed, turn the TV on, and do some good old fashioned channel surfing.

My first destination is always Bravo, but the next stop is HGTV. Except that for years now, whenever I’ve turned on HGTV, it’s some new spinoff-of-a-spinoff home renovation show, where they’re showing new construction homes, millennial grey interiors, and budgets that are always mind boggling given the couples’ careers. Tiny House, Flip or Flop, House Hunters, Fixer Upper, Love It or List It —sure, they’re fun. But I never feel like I’m walking away learning anything. It feels like the television equivalent of eating a NECCO wafer —it’s edible, but ultimately devoid of any actual substance. They feel like Trojan horses to just sell advertising space.

This list of all HGTV programming tells us that ~50% of all their shows involve home renovation. It’s easy to see why! The dramatic reveals, the shocking before and afters, the high emotions of a couple buying their dream house that was out of their budget —it’s entertaining, it’s aspirational, and it taps into our emotions. And our emotional state ties into how susceptible we are to advertising.

This Frontiers study indicates that:

Marketers seeking new ways for creating arousal, attention, or a sense of pleasure with their advertisement, should focus, above the content itself, on the context in which the commercial is displayed. TV shows that generate attention can make consumers more attentive to the advertisements shown inside such programs. Attention is key when managing brand and product communication, as it has a direct impact on sales. Attention the individual may pay is limited and more difficult to capture, seeing the abundance of branded content available.

It should come as no surprise then, that it’s in HGTV’s business interests to keep us glued to the TV screen because it makes their network a highly desirable destination for those sweet, sweet ad dollars. Steven Lerner, senior vice president, programing and development, HGTV and DIY Network has said that, "With the continued success of the House Hunters franchise, Love It or List It, and Property Brothers, viewers seem to never tire of real estate, renovation, and peeking inside other people's homes."

So a viewer who is clicking over to watch their favorite weekly gardening show then turning the show off to go outside and putter around the yard is a less valuable viewer than the one who binge watches 8 episodes of Property Brothers (which I have definitely done).

This may come across as more acerbic than I’m intending, but given the state of the American economy currently, I’m sick to death of feeling like we exist only to be marketed to.

I used to work for a large publishing house in New York, and used to sit in meetings discussing eye-watering budgets for advertising campaigns designed to reach our desirable audiences of young and affluent readers, so I know how much money is at stake. Gardening, as we tend to think of it, is an older person’s hobby. It’s time consuming, and, as Hannah Searson for The Ringer writes, it’s kinda boring!

Gardening is, fundamentally, a boring hobby. Monty Don can try to link it to colonialism, culture, and power by deep-diving into the significance of the gardens of Versailles all he likes, but that doesn’t change the truth. I mean this with the utmost affection; there is nothing wrong with being bored. It can, in fact, be rather pleasurable. Even the issues faced by the participants are delightfully mundane. They are often stymied by bad weather, or the discovery of clay beneath the poor soil, or a long week at work. There’s an almost total disregard for drama and stakes.

And with gardening shows, rarely if ever do you get that, “Bus driver! MOVE! THAT! BUS!” kind of reveal. Gardening is slower, and aside from some expensive and drastic landscaping overhauls, is missing the wow factor that home design shows deliver.

But most importantly, I think, is that you can’t instantly go and purchase something you see on a gardening show like you can on a home design show. Buying a lamp, a new rug, a cool sectional is one thing. You’re spending money on products from a company! ROI, baby!

Looking up a rare dahlia tuber that you learned about on a gardening show, only to find out it’s out of stock from absolutely every seed company, then relegating it to your list of “tubers to buy” doesn’t have quite the same panache with marketers.

Gardening needs some PR help, stat. Make it cool again! Show me your seed hauls instead of your Amazon spring must-haves (an oxymoron if there ever was one). Instead of your self-care “morning shed”, share your potting shed. I do not care about the Sézane jacket you bought, but I am heavily invested in your vintage chore coat that’s tattered and dirt-smudged and probably has rogue seeds in the pockets.

So with little hope that American network TV will ever serve up the dank educational gardening content that the UK amply provides (Gardener’s World, ILYSM), the best place to turn is YouTube! I’m fond of watching a Charles Dowding no-dig gardening video while cooking dinner, learning permaculture from Huw Gardens, or learning about all things flowers from Garden Answer and Floret Flower.

Some other channels I love: Brie the Plant Lady, Her 86m2, Becoming a Farm Girl, Gaz Oakley, P. Allen Smith, Growing a Greener World, Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t, and The Rusted Garden. Viewer beware: the great part about the internet is that it can give a voice to folks with expertise to share who might have never appeared on network TV, but it also means that anyone can share their advice, which might not always be accurate. When in doubt, check it out in a trusted gardening book. And if you don’t have one visit your local library (which we also need to save!!).

Candidly, one of by BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals!) this year is to revive my own languishing YouTube channel with some longer form videos. I’ve recorded two so far this year, both riddled with unfortunate audio issues, but once the season kicks off in earnest I’m going to try to put out a few a month. Be the change you wish to see in the world, and all!

I know I, personally, crave longer form, more in-depth content. If I see a 2+ hour podcast in an area of interest, I’m locked and loaded, baby! Headphones on, I’m walking and learning and taking notes. The same subject in 20 minutes? I figure at least 1/3 of that time is podcast ads. We’re merely pawns in the attention economy.

So while the “G” still remains in HGTV, I think it’s more of a formality than anything now. HTV just doesn’t have the same ring, does it? And in 2025, who among us has the funny money to throw around on home renovations? Cue: “Kim, there’s people that are dying.”

The age of generic renovations and house flipping is over.

The time of the garden has come.

I would love for you to share your favorite gardening YouTube channels in the comment section! I am always on the prowl for more folks to learn from and be inspired by. At the rate this economy is going, we may all be canceling some streaming shows so $Free.99 YouTube shows? Sign me up.

Until next (pizza) Friday,

Amy

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LOLs of the Week

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Reading

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan

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Listening

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Growing

I’m in zone 6a here in Central Massachusetts, which means it’s ~6 weeks before last frost. I use May 20th as our tentative first frost-free date, as historically that’s what our microclimate has dictated. A frost-free date is an estimate of when your area should be safe from freezing temperatures in the spring, but it’s not a guarantee. Think of it as a general guideline based on past weather patterns. Some years, frost might linger a little longer, and other years, it might warm up sooner. If you’re confused about what this means for your location check out this handy dandy tool!

This past week, I sowed two more trays of assorted greens (kales and lettuces, all varieties listed below!). This weekend, I will be sowing all of my tomatoes along with many annual flowers, which I will share next week. Some of the seeds I’m sowing this year are from 2018-2020, and I never test germination rates —rather, I just sow the older seeds a bit more densely. Instead of 2 per cell, I may do 5 or 6, then thin if they surprisingly all germinate. Seed viability varies between plant varieties, with some seeing a steep drop-off after only a year (I’m looking at you, onions!) whereas tomato seeds can store for 10+ years. It all comes down to storage conditions. If you’re a seed geek and want to go down a fun rabbit hole, look into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault!

Leafy Greens

• Simpson Elite Lettuce

• Black Hawk Lettuce

• Plato Lettuce

• Salad de Russie Lettuce

• Salanova Lettuce

• Mesclun Mix

• Flame Lettuce

• Red Salad Bowl Lettuce

• Coastal Star Lettuce

• Forellenschluss Lettuce

• Mizuna

• Ironman Kale Mix

• Mamba Kale

• Dazzling Blue Kale

• Scarlett Kale

• Siber Frills Kale

Tomatoes

• Sun Gold

• Large Red

• Paul Robeson

• Livingston’s Paragon

• Brandywine (Sudduth’s Strain)

• Mexico Midget

• Black Krim

• Mortgage Lifter VFN

• Pink Boar

• Yellow Brandywine

• Japanese Black Trifele

• Black Cherry

• Kellogg’s Breakfast

• Gold Medal

• Supersweet 100

• Striped German

• Juliet

• Cherokee Purple

• Amish Paste Tomato

• Matt’s Wild Cherry

• Costoluto Genovese

• Berkeley Tie Dye Pink

• Sunrise Bumblebee

…yikes, the tomatoes got out of hand quickly.

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Loving

• Dead hedges. I visited New England Botanic Garden recently (one of my very favorite places in Massachusetts), and while wandering through their Loop trail, stumbled upon this stunning spiral-shaped dead hedge in the woods. We’d considered putting one in a few years ago, but then my tick anxiety got the better of me. Armed with a few additional years of New England living under my belt, 15 chickens, and my tick protocol, I felt ready to start building one of our own. I got to work on it this week and will share some WIP photos soon! I can’t wait to see how the birds take to it this year, and I’m excited for a little additional privacy from our back neighbors (who are lovely, but are rabid leaf-blowers, pesticide-appliers, and lawn-mowers).

• Daffodils. I’m incapable of passing by without stopping to coo over them. After a cold New England winter, daffodils are a sight for sore eyes. The crocuses and snowdrops have been lovely, but there’s something especially hopeful about daffodils.

  

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Link Roundup

People With "Grandma Hobbies" Have Better Mental Health, Experts Say [House Beautiful]

Carrots Can’t Help You See in the Dark. Here’s How a World War II Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth [Smithsonian Magazine]

Dreams of the Possible and Impossible for This Year’s Garden [New York Times]

The Cottage-Cheese Craze [The Cut]

Deep-sea mining threatens sea life in a way no one is thinking about − by dumping debris into the thriving midwater zone [The Conversation]

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I love sharing gardening knowledge openly, so this newsletter will always be free. If you’d like to support my work (or just help fund my next pizza night!), I set up a little Buy Me a Coffee page. Thanks for being here!"

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Enjoying Pizza Friday? Share the love and forward this email to a friend you think would dig it so they can get in on the fun, too. Like pebbling, which is what penguins do! They bring little trinkets like pebbles to their loved ones. How precious is that?

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