The Victory Garden (TV series)

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The Victory Garden is a television show about gardening and other outdoor activities.

The show debuted on April 16, 1975 was originally produced by James Underwood Crockett and was entitled Crockett's Victory Garden. The garden was located at WGBH's studios in Allston, Massachusetts. Crockett died July 11, 1979 soon after the show became successful. At this point, the title of the show was changed to simply The Victory Garden and over the years, the scope of the show expanded considerably to include all aspects of gardening, including: landscape design, history, growing perennials, annual, vegetables and garden travel.

Bob Thompson hosted from Crockett's death until 1991 when failing eyesight prompted him to step down as host. He died on October 2, 2003, following a battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Roger Swain began appearing on the show in the mid 1980s, and hosted it from 1991 until 2001. In that year, longtime producer Russell Morash decided to end his tenure, leading to a complete turnover in the cast and crew. Swain has differentiated between the show he was on and the current Victory Garden show: "If you get rid of Ernie and Cookie Monster and Big Bird, you don't have Sesame Street anymore," he said. "So let's call the new show something else, because whatever it is, it ain't The Victory Garden."

The current host is Michael Weishan.

Funding for The Victory Garden is provided by The Scotts Company and Subaru.

The show has produced fewer new episodes in recent years.

2002 - Season 27 - 26 episodes

2003 - Season 28 - 26 episodes

2004 - Season 29 - 20 episodes

2005 - Season 30 - 18 episodes

2006 - Season 31 - yet to be announced but it normally begins in April.

This is probably due to the loss of sponsors (Ace Hardware was a longtime sponsor until recently).

[edit] Trivia

There have been four main Victory Gardens over the show's history; the first beside WGBH's Allston, Massachusetts studios; the second at Lexington Gardens Nursery in Lexington, MA; the third was known to be on property owned by producer Russell Morash somewhere in the Boston area. The fourth, and current garden, is located west of Boston.
The current garden is over 3 acres and contains a 100 x 50' vegetable garden; 120' long perennial border, a shade garden, bog garden and annual parterre, as well as a small working greenhouse
90% of the annuals shown on the show are grown by show gardener Kip Anderson
Show host Weishan is nationally known garden designer and author who has written three books: The New Traditional Garden (1999); From a Victorian Garden (2004) and The Victory Garden Companion (2006)