The show is hosted by Matt James, who is billed as "a genuine, 21st-century tree-hugger". The show is targeted at urbancity dwellers that might otherwise overlook their potential gardens due to a busy schedule, small garden area or not enough do-it-yourself knowledge.
In each episode Matt James visits a home located in the city, which usually contains a dilapidated and/or tiny garden area that needs major renovation. The home owners decide on a budget for their new garden and are consulted on their preference of garden style, features, plants, and maintenance requirement. The space is surveyed and Matt develops a design for the garden in keeping with the homeowner's usually modest budget.
In order to get the most out of their money, the home owners usually invitefriends and family to help with manual labour. This can include breaking concrete, removing bricks and stone, tearing up grass and topsoil, or even completely removing existing soil in favor of soil that will be more suitable for sustaining plant life.
Matt James pays particular attention to the types of plants that are used in each garden, utilizing his seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of each plant species and providing useful gardening tips geared towards gardening in the city. The viewer gets the impression that he has a profound love for gardening and for plants in particular.
As the show draws to an end the garden is completed. Before and after pictures are shown with an overview of the major features of the new garden. The homeowners are consulted and are usually very pleased.
Matt James also filmed an American version of The City Gardener called Urban Outsiders for HGTV, featuring gardens in New York City and Los Angeles. The first 13 shows aired in 2006, the remaining 13 shows are due to air shortly.
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits, and herbs, are grown for consumption, for use as dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use.
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is control. The garden can incorporate both natural and artificial materials.
A wildlife garden is an environment created with the purpose to serve as a sustainable haven for surrounding wildlife. Wildlife gardens contain a variety of habitats that cater to native and local plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals and so on, and are meant to sustain locally native flora and fauna. Other names this type of gardening goes by can vary, prominent ones being habitat, ecology, and conservation gardening.
A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small Alpine plants that need relatively little soil or water. Western rock gardens are often divided into alpine gardens, scree gardens on looser, smaller stones, and other rock gardens.
Urban agriculture refers to various practices of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in urban areas. The term also applies to the area activities of animal husbandry, aquaculture, beekeeping, and horticulture in an urban context. Urban agriculture is distinguished from peri-urban agriculture, which takes place in rural areas at the edge of suburbs.
While You Were Out is an American reality series that aired episodes on the cable channel TLC. The format of the show is similar to TLC's Trading Spaces. While You Were Out adds a suspenseful gimmick by keeping the entire redecoration a secret from the homeowner.
Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise. Most professional garden designers have some training in horticulture and the principles of design. Some are also landscape architects, a more formal level of training that usually requires an advanced degree and often a state license. Amateur gardeners may also attain a high level of experience from extensive hours working in their own gardens, through casual study, serious study in Master gardener programs, or by joining gardening clubs.
Rain gardens, also called bioretention facilities, are one of a variety of practices designed to increase rain runoff reabsorption by the soil. They can also be used to treat polluted stormwater runoff. Rain gardens are designed landscape sites that reduce the flow rate, total quantity, and pollutant load of runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs, driveways, walkways, parking lots, and compacted lawn areas. Rain gardens rely on plants and natural or engineered soil medium to retain stormwater and increase the lag time of infiltration, while remediating and filtering pollutants carried by urban runoff. Rain gardens provide a method to reuse and optimize any rain that falls, reducing or avoiding the need for additional irrigation. A benefit of planting rain gardens is the consequential decrease in ambient air and water temperature, a mitigation that is especially effective in urban areas containing an abundance of impervious surfaces that absorb heat in a phenomenon known as the heat-island effect.
Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are local to the geographic area of the garden.
House Hunters is an American unscripted television series that airs on HGTV and is produced by Pie Town Productions. Each episode follows people making a decision about a new home purchase or rental.
Designed to Sell is an HGTV American reality television show produced by Pie Town Productions in Los Angeles and Chicago and Edelman Productions in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Each 30-minute episode focuses on fixing up a home that is about to go on the market or that has been on the market but has not attracted buyers. The show began airing in 2004 and was canceled in 2011.
Urban horticulture is the science and study of the growing plants in an urban environment. It focuses on the functional use of horticulture so as to maintain and improve the surrounding urban area. Urban horticulture has seen an increase in attention with the global trend of urbanization and works to study the harvest, aesthetic, architectural, recreational and psychological purposes and effects of plants in urban environments.
Patti Moreno, born in New York City, is an independent film producer and television personality best known for her work as Garden Girl on the hit web video series Garden Girl TV. Living and working in Boston, Patti published the hit website and e-newsletter Urban Sustainable Living from 2007-2011. Her goal is to pioneer the idea of gardening in small or urban environments, and to inspire and educate people everywhere to grow their own organic food and live sustainably. She is also the co-host of Growing a Greener World, author for Fine Gardening, and gardening expert for HGTV.
Xeriscaping is the process of landscaping, or gardening, that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful, or reliable supplies of fresh water and has gained acceptance in other regions as access to irrigation water has become limited, though it is not limited to such climates. Xeriscaping may be an alternative to various types of traditional gardening.
Matt James is a British garden designer, horticulturist and university lecturer who rose to fame on the TV programme The City Gardener which was shown on the UK's Channel 4. Originally from Essex, he now resides with his wife and children in Cornwall.
Income Property is a Canadian home-improvement program hosted by Scott McGillivray. The series premiered on HGTV Canada on September 29, 2008, and on January 1, 2009, on HGTV in the U.S. The program was a half-hour long for the first six seasons, and then expanded to an hour-long format starting with season 7. The show reverted to its half-hour format with the start of season 10.
Property Virgins is a reality television series produced by Cineflix. The show portrays the experiences of prospective first-time home buyers, or "property virgins". The host of the show coaches first-time home buyers to adjust their dream home vision to a more realistic one that fits the market and their budget.
French intensive gardening also known as raised bed, wide bed, or French market gardening is a method of gardening in which plants are grown within a smaller space and with higher yields than other traditional gardening methods. The main principles for success are often listed as soil improvement, raised beds, close spacing, companion planting, succession planting and crop rotation. Originating in France, the practice is very popular among urban gardeners and small for profit farming operations.
HGTV is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, approximately 95,628,000 American households receive HGTV. The network was bought by Warner Bros. Discovery, then known as Discovery, Inc., in 2018, and it has come to be ranked at No. 4 in audience size among cable networks.
The sixth season of the American reality television competition series HGTV Design Star premiered July 11, 2011. The two major additions to the show were Tanika Ray as host, and David Bromstad as mentor.
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