PBS ‘Garden’ host gives green thumbs up to Sonoma

Jamie Durie, host of The Victory Garden on PBS.  Photo by Ann Johanssen.

Motorists who frequent Highway 12/121 south of Sonoma have come to expect some order of “roadside attraction” peeking from the perimeter of Cornerstone Gardens, the walk-through showcase of installations by world-class landscape designers.
A recent addition – a white picket fence twisted so that it suggests a wannabe Möbius strip – caught the eye of Australian landscape designer Jamie Durie, host of television’s, “The Victory Garden,” who was taping segments at the location this week.
“At first I thought that a tornado had come through the area, then I suddenly realized it was a man-made concept. Hats off to them because it certainly gets your attention and that’s what it’s all about – challenging the norm,” said Durie, whose show premieres on PBS this fall.
“The Victory Garden” crew later taped a segment on the edible organic gardens at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts in Napa Valley and are planning on-camera appearances with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and Bay Area culinary doyenne Alice Waters as part of the 2008 Victory Gardens Community Planting Day in San Francisco.
Durie, a seasoned horticulturalist and founder of the international award-winning design company PATIO Landscape Architecture and Design, seemed quite impressed with the design sensibility showcased throughout Cornerstone.
“I think this is a fantastic concept and there should be more of it. It’s a great way to inspire people using contemporary gardens in an artistic way. It’s getting people to look at gardens in a completely new, fresh and conceptual way. I think it’s really going to bring a lot of innovation in the industry,” said Durie, who has authored several books on garden design, including “PATIO – Garden Design and Inspiration.”
A gardening trend Durie sees gaining traction in the wine country and beyond is the proliferation of “kitchen gardens,” wherein gardeners are “actually producing what you eat,” said Durie.
But does everybody have the ability to be a green thumb?
“Absolutely,” he confirmed. “With all of the information out there and, of course, ‘The Victory Garden,’ there is no excuse for ‘black thumbs.’ Horticultural mania has never been so out there. The exposure for gardens, these days, is twenty times better than it was even three years ago.”
Durie has also observed an increase in the awareness of sustainability issues and other green-themed initiatives employed in home gardens the world over.
“It is certainly going to amplify the situation because people are thinking more and more about the impact their backyard is creating on the planet. They are also realizing that their backyard can be a useful tool for fighting climate change. For every tree you put in the ground, it takes up one ton of carbon emissions in its lifetime,” said Durie. “What we are trying to do is to encourage a whole new younger range of gardeners to come onboard and watch the show and be inspired by what they see. For a long time now, we’ve looked at gardening as a kind of ‘elderly’ sort of sport. In my mind, I think gardening is becoming hip again.”
Part of Durie’s mission is to engage younger viewers and encourage them to embrace gardening as an act of personal edification with the added benefit that it’s good for the planet as well.
“We are trying to bring aboard younger people because they’re the generation that will become the stewards of the planet,” Durie explained. “If we can inspire them in some personal way through art, which is my profession, to get in touch with nature again and to reconnect them with plants, then they are automatically going to fall in love with their own backyard, and the environment that it sits in, on a global scale.”