“Backyard Farmer” will begin its 60th season April 5, with a new theme and coming off of its best ratings year ever.
“Still Growing Strong” is the new theme for the gardening series, a coproduction of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension and NET Television. It first aired June 1, 1953.
“We’re focusing as always on giving good, creative, science-based and entertaining advice,” said Kim Todd, UNL Extension horticulturist and series host.
The series airs at 7 and 10 p.m. CDT Thursdays on NET1/HD -- starting April 5, and continuing until early September. “Backyard Farmer” episodes also can be seen on NET3 Create on Sundays at noon CDT.
Todd and series producer Brad Mills of UNL’s Educational Media said this year’s series will include all the favorite elements of past years, and also time to reflect on how gardening has changed – and the series with it.
For example, Todd said, advice for dealing with pests or disease used to be simple and uniform: Spray it with some sort of chemical. That’s no longer true, as the series’ UNL Extension experts encourage an integrated pest management approach that makes use of best management practices.
“This season, we’ll focus on how the advice we give has changed over the last six decades,” Todd said. “You’ll hear lively discussion about changes in chemical use and plant varieties, the ‘garden weasel’ and other garden fads; and green or sustainable trends that include vertical gardening, edible landscapes and green walls.”
A couple of visits to sites away from the series’ university-campus NET studio home are planned, and some special events and activities are ahead as well, though details are still not finalized.
Although much has changed over the years, Todd said, turf grass and tomatoes are still viewers’ two top favorite subjects. Container gardening is another perennial winner.
In the last few years, Mills noted, “we’ve really turned our attention to this whole movement of growing your own food.” People are concerned about the quality of their food and interested in taking control of that themselves.
The series has been around long enough that some of today’s viewers remember their parents or grandparents watching it, Mills said. Thanks to the online availability of the series, viewers watch from across the nation and from around the world. Although the focus of the UNL Extension experts is on Nebraska conditions and issues, they also try to keep in mind that more expansive audience.
“Last year, one of our most loyal audience members watched from New Jersey,” Todd said.
At the time of this interview, in mid-March, there already were 100 new questions in the BYF email inbox.
Mills and Todd said the partnership between UNL Extension and NET is key.
“The program didn’t start on NET but it has grown up on NET,” said Mills, noting that public-television legend Jack McBride once produced “Backyard Farmer.”
Extension Master Gardeners from UNL and Lancaster County staff the phone banks, and most of the panelists on the series are extension educators and specialists.
The panelists specialize in such areas as horticulture, plant pathology, turf grass management, landscape design and entomology. The series features advice on topics such as soil preparation, water conservation, recycling in the "green" garden, organic food production, best landscape practices and edible landscapes. There’s also a plant-of-the-week segment and lively discussion about plant and pest samples sent in by viewers from across the state and the Plains region. Each week, the “Backyard Farmer” telephone operators field about 200 calls during the live show. Another 75 to 100 questions are submitted via email.
Although it has a long history and is deeply rooted in tradition, the series takes advantage of today's new technology with segments on YouTube – about 800,000 views so far -- and the “Backyard Farmer” website (byf.unl.edu). The site features gardening tips and a database of viewer questions and panelist answers. Each show is also available on iTunes as a video podcast after the Thursday evening broadcast and is streamed live at byf.unl.edu.
A mobile-phone app also is in the works and is expected to be ready early in the season.
“Backyard Farmer” is underwritten in part by Earl May Nursery and Garden Centers and Finke Gardens. The series is a co-production of NET Television and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/uq5