The idea behind this show, which is fixing up people's ugly yards, is a good one, but I have a lot of problems with it.
Jason Cameron goes to people's houses where their front yards are filled with scraggly weeds, overgrown trees, and flower beds with either dead plants or no plants. He and his crew dig out new flower beds and fill them with lovely plants, and then re-sod the lawn, making it lush and green.
That's fine, except for one thing. If these people knew how to care for plants and grass their landscape wouldn't be desperate to begin with, would it? so who says they'll take care of all these new plants after the television crew leaves? Another problem I have is with the types of plants that are brought in. Since they only have two days in which to transform the yard Cameron tends to load up these gigantic new beds with identical plants, and many of them are annuals, which means that in three months all the plants will be dead and the beds will be empty again because the homeowners don't know what to replace them with because, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, they don't know how to take care of a garden.
A better tactic would be to combine annuals and perennials so that as one fades another blooms, but you wouldn't have the "wow factor" and instant gratification that the show is going for.
Cameron also tends to plant very large trees very close to the houses. It looks nice now, but how about in ten years when the roots are creating cracks in the foundation and spreading into the septic tank or sewer line? The premise is good, and the end results are lovely, but I would like it better if they did follow-up shows to see if the homeowners have indeed learned anything and are continuing to keep their yards looking good, or if they have fallen back into a state of neglect and overgrowth.
Jason Cameron goes to people's houses where their front yards are filled with scraggly weeds, overgrown trees, and flower beds with either dead plants or no plants. He and his crew dig out new flower beds and fill them with lovely plants, and then re-sod the lawn, making it lush and green.
That's fine, except for one thing. If these people knew how to care for plants and grass their landscape wouldn't be desperate to begin with, would it? so who says they'll take care of all these new plants after the television crew leaves? Another problem I have is with the types of plants that are brought in. Since they only have two days in which to transform the yard Cameron tends to load up these gigantic new beds with identical plants, and many of them are annuals, which means that in three months all the plants will be dead and the beds will be empty again because the homeowners don't know what to replace them with because, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, they don't know how to take care of a garden.
A better tactic would be to combine annuals and perennials so that as one fades another blooms, but you wouldn't have the "wow factor" and instant gratification that the show is going for.
Cameron also tends to plant very large trees very close to the houses. It looks nice now, but how about in ten years when the roots are creating cracks in the foundation and spreading into the septic tank or sewer line? The premise is good, and the end results are lovely, but I would like it better if they did follow-up shows to see if the homeowners have indeed learned anything and are continuing to keep their yards looking good, or if they have fallen back into a state of neglect and overgrowth.
