@sesurh They are hard to find in my area as well. i was ordering online but Monrovia is a main supplier where I am and when I shop local then what I get is more likely to do well in my area. Their support of Garden Answer has just made me even less likely to buy from them in the future.

The other thing I could not like is why she is planting so much- dahlia for whole town? Or feeding winter squash for entire neighborhood? Nothing really home like about her garden anymore. No way is she maintaining it herself or with her husband either. That show stresses me out so much.

@dragonfly1041 Yes there’s a lot of superiority and dare I say snootiness in the gardening ”community”. Whatever you do, stay away from the Facebook groups. They are brutal if you dare ask a question or post an opinion and the thing about the advice is different things work for different environments. Just enjoy your own garden and do what works for you and your budget. Personally I think it’s more exciting to start with small plants and then watch them grow and it’s much easier on the budget.

1. @User No I am not even a Facebook users in over 10 years, I agree watching something grow from a seed or plug is way more satisfying. Our house was built two years ago and our property is blank slate so while the spring was exhausting, I an enjoying the journey. I am neither a "serious gardener" or even an "experienced" one and it is all trial and error for me.

Friends of Roots and Refuge is a great Facebook gardening page. No politics and very supportive. I like her Youtube channel a lot also.

Agree! i have ”gardened” for many years but just became more serious about it in the last two when i now have the time that i never had before. Seed starting in the dreary months, cuttings, ”shopping my garden” etc as Linds Vater would say. Now the journey is as important as the outcome and the outcomes are so much better for it! Although i still watch Laura occasionally, it is just for entertainmrnt, a nice version of reality TV. i like home gardeners who are knowledgeable and from whom I learn something everytime i watch. One of my faves is Northlawn Flower Farm. She is a lovely person, grows cur flowers for sale and for her own enjoyment and is a Master Gardener. There are so many great gardeners on you tube who share their passion and knowledge (not their chores, as Laura puts it). If gardening was a chore i wouldn’t do it!!!

I watched Garden Answer years ago when Laura/Aaron had a smaller patch of land. Today, I find acres of land being planted for the personal enjoyment of one family (notwithstanding the occasional "freebies" they dole out out of their excess) totally unrelatable. The amount of water they must use to irrigate all that just because they can leaves me cold. I am a fan of Northlawn Flower Farm.

I have a very large yard, so much for only two hands to tend that I was forced to reduce here and there and even edited out a whopping 60 ft x 40 ft bed and sowing it into lawn, one of the best things I have done! My landscape is both enjoyable and pleasing to the eye, has all sorts of interesting contour and changes in elevation and places that just call out to meander and explore, folks often tell me I have paradise! Laura is working with a very vast clean and boring flat slate, so large she must buggy herself and plants around. While her plantings might be well thought out and nice and all, the size and scope leaves me feeling as the above poster has stated.

While her plantings might be well thought out

Not anytime that I saw back when I was watching some of it

^ Well, in comparison to many of my plantings, lol :)

I don't watch you tube, TV or media much at all, tbh since just about all of it is centred around aspirational branding. The whole influencing thing. Just not for me. First off, gardening is a process I enjoy. All of it. Buying and owning plants come quite a bit further down my priorities than participating myself. Collecting seed, sowing it, dividing, building, maintaining and admiring plants. I guess it is about doing and learning and trying, more than having and, imo, monetised media promoting is always about selling. I don't feel inspired by stuff like the Chelsea Flower Show. I feel irritated, manipulated and irked.

It has taken me a long time to get to this point though. To walk past plant stalls, garden centres and such without feeling I absolutely must have this or that plant, regardless of how appropriate it might be in my gardens. Where I feel confident about both my choices and abilities to make gardens I am happy about. And to have acquired more patience and less need for quick fix purchases. I have certainly fallen into competitive collecting and manic acquisition of various plant families (although some of the excesses on certain forums did begin to annoy me). It's not that I have become more puritanical or anything, just I have found a way of gardening which works well for me. I collect seed from plants which are obviously thriving in my climate, then raise them slowly. I tend to cherish them a bit more and it also winnows out the obviously rubbish choices for my garden circumstances, at a fairly early stage.

I do read books, And join plant societies, And chat on forums.And even watch some internet Vlogs...just not sponsored stuff which is information light and capital-driven, styling heavy. And yes, I would desist from consuming or supporting any media product which was antithetical to my ethics and politics.

.

Oh yes, I am also vastly cynical about people pimping out their children, pets,lifestyle and personal stuff all over public media. The Instagram, living my best life, vacuous drivel, sanitised, primped, fluff which passes for entertainment.

I am glad you have found the balance that works for you and i am sure many gardeners, myself included, who would agree with much of what you said. However, there are a number of you tubers who are knowledgeable and who simply enjoy sharing their experiences and insights (Northlawn Flower Farm for example). Certainly there is income derived from a YouTube channel, but i have a lot of respect for those who are not sponsored and who put effort into their content. Garden Answer is (and Linda Vater is rapidly becoming) a train wreck

O I agree, Sesuth. I have been an enthusiastic user of certain you-tube tutorials regarding knitting, for example (How to do German short rows).. I just tend to ignore the sponsored ones where selling stuff is the primary focus. Or those with a presenter who is desperately trying to be a 'personality' and appears to love the sound of their own voice. Fortunately, the style and emphasis of many You-tube videos is fairly obvious within the first 30 seconds. I only have patience to watch 5 minutes, tops.

I dunno - I have never really got along with the media presenter/celebrity thing. It kinda baffles me a bit when people I know claim to 'love' so and so from off the TV. What does this mean? Do they like what they are hearing? Do they imagine the presenters are authentic and they somehow 'know' them? What is more important - the material or the presenter? I never used to watch Gardener's World because it was dull, derivative and generally featured Monty Don buying something new every week.. Lately, the programme features other people's gardens and experiences which, for me,is a million times more interesting than seeing Don pot up yet another plant (using mysteriously shiny, new equipment), so I have returned to the viewing fold. I don't really watch much screen stuff anyway because I am a bit attention challenged and hyper... but that's on me.

"I never used to watch Gardener's World because it was dull, derivative and generally featured Monty Don buying something new every week.. Lately, the programme features other people's gardens and experiences which, for me,is a million times more interesting than seeing Don pot up yet another plant (using mysteriously shiny, new equipment),"

You must be watching a different Gardener's World than I! I can't think of when I've seen Monty plant anything other than seeds or cuttings and divisions from his own garden. And with tools that look older than he is!

I can't think of when I've seen Monty plant anything other than seeds or cuttings and divisions from his own garden.

I do occasionally notice Monty planting containerized shrubs/trees that clearly have garden center price tags/labels remaining on the pots, but I'd agree the majority of what he's planting is seed-grown or from divisions/cuttings.

I love Gardener’s World. Best show I’ve seen on gardening

Going to have to agree to disagree here, regarding Monty Don. He is a TV presenter - not a gardener. Longmeadow is maintained by a team of 9 or so. As a jobbing gardener myself, it just annoys me when garden owners take the credit for doing the actual work, (this happens a lot!). Which is why I have been considerably more keen on the bits of the programme which features other people's gardens.

If I had to watch TV gardening, (which I generally don't), then I would be more inclined to go with The Beechgrove Garden.

I liked Gardening By the Yard too. That guy in Tulsa, OK had a great yard and I think actually did everything himself.

I love watching garden answer! I get so many tips and tricks. I also love watching Laura and her Mom go antiquing. So much fun and I find myself laughing right along with them. I looked up similar stores in my own area to see what I can find.

Wow! Didn't think I'd see this thread pop up after all this time and kind of shocked and the amount of controversy in the replies. It's just a garden show. At the time I posted it, I was STARVING for some good garden porn. Thankfully, there is a lot more out there now. My big crush these days is John Lord and his secret garden. I also have been fawning over the absolutely gorgeous gardens in the first season of the British House Hunters-type show, "Escape To The Country." Shout out also to Carol Klein, whose exuberance I find infectious. I'm grateful for everyone who waxes enthusiastic and shares lovely gardens on the TV. They have helped me through many a bleak winter.

I love watching Gardener's world and Carol Klein's series. Whether or not they are maintaining their large gardens now, they clearly know plenty about plants and gardening and were hands on gardeners for a long while at some point in their lives. Their shows are well produced, informative and relaxing. I have tried watching gardener answer, but it is exhausting and stressful. The non-stop high energy monologue and running around is off putting. Plonking dozens of fully grown and flowering high-priced plants, industrial scale of activity.....To each his/her own I guess. Give me Monty Don any day.

Carol is 77, Monty is 67 - so they have earned their right to have help! I also like Sarah Raven though she doesn’t produce a lot of content. Her books are great - all three are knowledgable with a lifetime of expertise. I still watch Garden Answer but consider it entertaining American reality tv and enjoy it at the end if a long day for what it is.

I more so at times watch Garden Answer for my interest in certain plants she's plopping in the ground. What I can't relate to despite having a very large yard of my own, is the sheer magnitude she's dealing with, I can walk my plantings in minutes, she needs a motorized cart! I'm also grateful for the many contour and elevation changes making my property visually appealing and fun, not just all flat and boring, my apologies to you flat earthers, LOL. :)

@getgoing100_7b_nj- "....gardener answer, but it is exhausting and stressful....." this is my main problem with GA- very stressful to watch. Even in middle of winter if I were to watch I feel like rushing outside to get to my gardening task. I feel inadequate watching it. She completes tasks in an hour or so with fully grown plants in perfect soil while the rest of us have to use smaller plants, amend ground and do a bunch of work to complete a task and I have a larger garden than her and cannot afford full size plants in bulk. Not many people have mentioned the stress aspect of the show so I thought I was the only one.

Amending of planting site soils for perennial (including all woody) plantings is counterproductive. So there is a way to cut the work load right off the bat. As the saying goes, Worker Smarter Not Harder.

Embothrium, what I do is deeply dig and amend (if necessary) my entire perennial and shrub beds, rather than making pocket hole plantings. Where the ground had been hard clay filled rock, the job was very intensive! I now only do additional deep digging within those beds when planting things like hydrangeas or perennials that benefit from an extra deep root run, I believe I tend to have very good results. Back on the farm, on clay I gardened for 35 years and said never again to that when moving time had come!

Is it good to “till” the soil before planting seed?

Depends, L Clark. It certainly isn't good to till/dig/plough on an annual basis. The concept of no-dig has been gainingtraction for the last couple of decades, where seed is drilled into place, using a small 1 inch slit, leaving the soil structure intact. Can be done on any scale - from a small vegetable bed to full 100 acre fields. Soil improvement occurs through topdressing, cover crops, mulching...allowing roots and biolife to do the hard work of soil improvement. On a hard, unimproved pan, I would consider some sort of initial amendment but soil is improved over time....and we have also learned a lot more about plant communities and symbiosis with living myceliums and a range of essential fungi, bacteria, nematodes...which comprise the complex and sometimes fragile skein of life.

It isn't a hill I would die on though. I fell out with many of the antique rose forum because I was so enthused about the newer research regarding soil amendments for woody shrubs. I was called all sorts of not very nice things and told I had no understandings about the challenges of growing roses in this soil and that. My suggestion - to grow more appropriate plants did not go down well - unsurprisingly, as plant collectors tend to be somewhat single-minded (and I include myself in this category). There is a strand of thinking that everything is possible with enough work, application and bending nature to our will...which I have come to disagree with over the years. Plus, many of us are very resistant to changing practices we may have followed for a long time.

I have not dug my beds for almost 2 decades...but back when I first got a plot, double digging was the norm. In healthcare, we don't routinely apply leeches or use sympathetic magic anymore either...ideas and methods change as our knowledge base expands. While I have definite political beliefs, I wouldn't presume to be so prescriptive or dogmatic about something like our gardening practices.

I amend soil by top dressing with compost/ well rotted manure and wood chips

You have described mulching. Hence your use of the related term top dressing. Whereas amending is digging stuff in.

what I do is deeply dig and amend (if necessary) my entire perennial and shrub beds, rather than making pocket hole plantings

Fine except after those amendments decompose and vanish the soil will settle back into its previous condition. Unless these long-term plants are all dug up and the soil re-amended periodically. This and the fact that garden varieties of flowering annual and vegetable plants tend to descend from wild progenitors that pop up on recently disturbed sites with high amounts of organic material present is why amending works for growing these types. And not woody and other perennial plants such as herbaceous peonies that do not need - or want - to be lifted, divided and replanted at frequent intervals.

I now only do additional deep digging within those beds when planting things like hydrangeas or perennials that benefit from an extra deep root run

Runs the risk of the plants ending up too deep after the loosened soil beneath them has settled. And is another situation where any beneficial effects of the initial extra effort will not last over time.

The concept of no-dig has been gaining traction for the last couple of decades

Washington State University was already promoting a conversion to what was being called minimum tillage for wheat production when I was a student there in the 1970s.

I fell out with many of the antique rose forum because I was so enthused about the newer research regarding soil amendments for woody shrubs

Organized testing by university level researchers using control subjects was finding that amending of planting hole backfill did not produce an improved response from woody plants by the late 1960s. Regardless of plant varieties used, combinations of amendments employed or test site soil types involved. With in addition planting hole amending actually tending to produce a temporary reduction in growth not seen with control subjects (same kinds, same test sites, no amendments). Complete failure as a result of backfill amending can also rather often occur, due to resulting deleterious effects on movement of water within the modified hole (including the material the roots of the recently planted specimen came in).

"You have described mulching. Hence your use of the related term top dressing. Whereas amending is digging stuff in".- No "Amend "means- make better or improve. compost & wood chips amends the soil over a period of time. They help condition the soil, . My plants are happy. What I do works and I see results. It is working hard AND smart. I am .not planning on doing a PHD in gardening and then with all that knowledge turn old and mirthless. I do it for fun. I repeat- not serious gardner but a happy one.

I think that you will find that accepted horticultural usage of 'amend' or 'amendments' does indeed involve their incorporation into the soil. Virtually all online resources will confirm this. While the products themselves can often be interchangeable - using a mulch as an amendment or an amendment as a mulch - the manner and purpose for which they are utilized is not interchangeable! One is worked into the soil - the other is not.

" To do its work, an amendment must be thoroughly mixed into the soil. If it is merely buried, its effectiveness is reduced, and it will interfere with water and air movement and root growth. Amending a soil is not the same thing as mulching, although many mulches also are used as amendments " CSU Extension Service

" In most cases, the difference between a soil amendment and a mulch is how you use it. Amendments are worked into the soil and mulch is placed on top of the soil. Some soil amendments (compost, soil conditioner) also make great mulches. " Swanson's Nursery

" Soil amendments and mulch seem similar because they can both benefit the soil and they can both be either organic or inorganic. But mulch and soil amendments serve different purposes.

Soil amendments are mixed into the soil to change its physical properties.

Mulch sits on top of the soil to suppress weeds and help retain moisture. Organic mulches break down into the soil over time to add nutrients, but in smaller quantities than soil amendments. " Turf Care blog

"Fine except after those amendments decompose and vanish the soil will settle back into its previous condition. Unless these long-term plants are all dug up and the soil re-amended periodically."

Agree, that's especially the way it had been when I had gardened on sticky clay soils, despite my planting amendments, perennials and most all things had rather quickly lost vigor making top dressing and fertilizing necessary. I now "mostly" have really nice fluffy silty grey wooded soil, some of which, other than originally having deeply turned over, I may or may not amend and my plantings have good longevity even when forgoing future top dressing / fertilizing. Of course, some perennials will always require a more frequent routine of digging and dividing despite whatever cultural practices are followed. As for any settling issues, being predominately silty, my soil settles with just a watering or two.

Yes: surface application of organic materials follows natural models, digging them in does not.

Stuff I put on top of the soil invariably makes it's way INTO the soil because I have lots of busy and voracious worms. I have watched a leaf being dragged under the surface in a matter of moments. And the mere act of harvesting turns the soil as vigorously as digging a trench. Unless we are talking about the actual spade using, the 'on top or underneath' distinction is no way clear-cut. My only real concern is to ensure the surface oi my sandy soil is not exposed to the leaching winds and rain...and a winter coverage of weeds is at least as useful and effective as any other mulch...just looks a bit tatty.

There is a big difference in how I garden for paying customers and how I conduct myself on my own plot. I know which method I prefer On one hand, I am responsible, careful, pay attention to the science of horticulture and am often slightly anxious. On the other, it is all a lot more anarchic, experimental (and often murderous), still slightly anxious but always joyful sense of 'so what'. Horses for courses.

I had been happily posting on the ARF forum for 15 years or so when the issue of soil amendments came up. One experienced gardener filled the planting holes with bushels of hay...and would not even entertain the idea that this was not the solution she imagined. And we hadn't even got started on the thorny issue of cutting back(or not) after transplanting. I ended up being sent to disney and felt really dismayed about the whole argumentative situation because of gardening practices. Now I am older and a tiny bit more circumspect, I just don't get so exercised by how other people do things so much...and I certainly wouldn't fall out with anyone because they got a bit secateur-happy.

So I've had this greenhouse garden for a couple years now, and there are very few worms despite me "introducing" quite a few of them into the environment. What gives? Other parts of my yard have worms when I dig.

Worms can be quite picky about their soil preferences. I had to work quite hard to encourage a good earthworm population because they are not terribly keen on lean sandy soil. They only started to increase after several years of dumping compost on the soil. I don't think they are happy in compacted soils and they can be entirely absent in soils which are inclined to waterlogging or flooding. What is your soil like, L.Clark?

Oh yeah, not something I have personally experienced but not all worms are beneficial. There has been a lot of concern about New Zealand flatworms, which cannibalise our native lobworms.

Royal National Rose Society ran a pruning experiment at their property in Britain some years ago, non-selective hedging-style pruning turned out to be the best. Best as in being followed by the highest levels of flower production the next blooming period. This was believed to be due to more stem tissue being retained than with conventional opening up of the center and so forth.

Of course, any time a body wanted particular rose specimens to develop naturally they would not shear them like a hedge. (Or prune them to look like a vase for that matter).

More than just a flatworm species North America is hosting introduced nuisance earthworms in addition to the native kinds. So that casual observers in any specific instance may not necessarily be looking at a nice bunch of happy native worms. Worms that are supposed to be here.

one thing thats good about her is she never gives up

" one thing thats good about her is she never gives up"

She also owns her mistakes and failures, and doesn't try to cover them up.

It's apparent that some people here haven't watched her show very much, or they would know that she grows many plants from seed, both indoors and in the ground, and doesn't just plunk commercial nursery plants in the ground. Yes, she does plant nursery plants sometimes, but not as much as she used to in earlier episodes. I think some people are forgetting that she has a YouTube channel that she has to maintain and keep interesting, and like many other Youtubers, she receives plants, etc. from companies that want to get their name out there and with 1.68 million subscribers, she can do that very well.

They need to start a dedicated compost pile; stop with the plastic-bagged soil, period.

I have watched Laura for many years and loved her show however, lately her gardening show just gives me show off vibes and the scale of everything is unrelatable for me.

It's been interesting to pop in/out of the this thread over the years. I will admit: I am very late to the YouTube/influencer games - somehow I even managed to go through the whole pandemic somewhat oblivious to it. But being enticed into it now, but also quite apparent how so many jumped on the influencer bandwagon and shamelessly endorsing products which they happily receive. The ones who are so obviously Proven Winners influencers - who can name off every single one of their named Proven Winners cultivars that make up their garden like "Pee Wee Me Pee Pee Hydrangea" or "Miss Dinky Winky Mighty Mouse Petunia" without referring to notes or bursting out laughing

I watched Garden Answer for a long while. I know at least 6 years for sure, because that's when I moved into to my new house. I haven't watched daily in the last year. The scale and expansion of the gardening is not relatable to me, but I enjoyed the family aspect. They seem really great and genuine. I relate the most to her sister's garden. I do enjoy when they feature Monica's garden for a video. I do check in here and there on their channel for garden tours, but I now enjoy smaller channels with smaller gardens that inspire me as it's attainable and most realistic for my size garden. The success of Garden Answer has provided others with jobs and that is such a blessing, and I do hope others continue to enjoy their channel.

I guess I am very late to this thread. I will not presuppose what the value of her show is to others, but I can communicate what I value.

I do NOT watch Garden Answer to learn about gardening, per se. Laura is a highly commercial animal, and all of the products she uses are transparent product promotions. I don't know how much she understands gardening outside of the framework her sponsors feed her. She probably understands a huge amount, but I always feel she is reading from a commercial script.

It is very clear that Proven Winners is her main product sponsor, and I do see some value in having her catalog their latest products.

That said, the main value of her show to me is landscape design. She has a pretty modest property that she has turned into an oasis of small gardens with semi-formal design. She uses a lot of statues and formalisms throughout that really elevate the garden. I guess her co-producer/husband is a landscape designer, and maybe these are his designs? That really does not matter to me, because the main value for me is in seeing how they use space, and just as important seeing how their designs evolve over time. That helps me to shape my own use of my small space.

Understood in this way, her channel is a kind of landscape design aspirational channel. It is a place everyone goes to dream about a garden they would like to have but probably will never get.

Here is a recent overview video she did showing how their property grew from just under two acres to over seven acres in less than 10 years, and how they created 25+ named garden areas within this space:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJpdCIKvHs

Considering that both she and her husband love gardening, and that they must be getting many/most of their plants and garden supplies for free and make considerable money on gardening videos in this space, it is a kind of dream job for someone who loves gardening.

I've been a watcher of Garden Answer for 12 years! I know this bc my son was 4 when I started getting into gardening & he is now 16 years old. But I get what people are saying. Their property is so big now, and I personally cannot relate anymore. Which kindof takes the fun out of it for me. But so it goes. Lately, they are talking horse paddock and just had a stream, pond put in. I'm happy for their success but for me it feels unattainable. I follow youtubers that have smaller properties & find them closer to my aesthetic. But it's entertainment right? PS- Garden Rescue is a good show.

I have watched GA for awhile on and off, and like many, I feel like she has totally grabbed on to the "influencer" title and has now just started going for it-and snobbishly so...seeming greedily to gobble up truckloads of plants. Fo example, she gets excited to plant an entire 40 plant rose garden, and then the next year, wants to rip it all out and give them away to "grateful" friends.

For me, the planning and maturation of thoughfully conceived landscapes and gardens is more my speed. I like certain areas with potted plants too. I'm all into instant gratification in a flowerpot, but 40 of them all around filled with 20 plants each is stressful to watch. (Of course we have to do it all in 1 or 2 sittings!) .And please don't get me started about the 20 themed christmas trees in every room and space of the house.

I'm pretty over the channel, but I'm sure she won't mind, as the GA machine is really up and humming now!

“Seeming greedily to gobble up truckloads of plants.” YES! That’s what bugs me about Laura and her show. So much conspicuous consumption for a family of four.

And that’s the other thing that bugs me - someone above described it as pimping out her children. Yes, the kids are cute. But no, I’m not interested in watching Samantha play in the dirt, Benjamin identify another songbird, or Laura and her mother giggle during an antiquing jaunt. I’m watching to learn about gardening.

I’m going to start looking for another gardening YouTube channel. Suggestions?

LOL! Exactly. I used to really love the way old versions of Martha Stewart Living, like the episodes from seasons 1, 2, 3 that went right with the magazine in the late 90s -early 2000s. I learned so much about gardening in my area (similar to hers then) and about plants and growing everything. I loved that she was so knowledgeable, obviously having done the research because she needed to so that she could have success with whatever the task was. (She's changed so much since then, and now I don't watch her anymore)

I'm not sure of another channel to check out-but if I find one, I will let you know. For now I just can't watch Laura bust into a store, grab a ton of ornaments, break some and say whatever. She has gotten so that every single thing must be for video content that she doesn't even care that she just buys everything in sight for the next "project" from a list that never ends. I can say I watched her when.... :) .If you come up with a good channel-keep me in the loop!