Few things in life offer the pride and sense of accomplishment one feels from nurturing a living thing from seed to harvest. The Inside Dirt explores the wide variety of gardening projects, from small plantings to greenhouse growing, that are available when you apply your gardening skills to the great indoors. When you garden indoors in a stable environment that always has the “right” conditions, you can produce a bounty of fresh flowers, vegetables, herbs, and other greenery, all year long, on a manageable scale that’s easy to tend. You’ll have beautiful, fragrant, and colorful living art to decorate your home…yet the “landscape” can be changed in an instant! You can even cultivate delicate and rare plants inside that might not grow in your outdoor climate.
The Inside Dirt’s viewers learn traditional gardening arts with an American twist, such as indoor Bonsai and topiary. They try new and unusual projects, like raising a Venus flytrap and growing an ever-expanding variety Of miniature fruits and vegetables. And the role of plants in interior design is explored with functional projects, such as creating a “living” room divider Or using plants as wall art. The Inside Dirt offers viewers a combination of challenging and creative indoor gardening projects to do with the program host, a chance to learn advanced techniques from experts, and the opportunity for viewers to improve their gardening skills.
The host of The Inside Dirt is a vibrant, energetic, and engaging communicator who knows his/her way around a garden. An urban dweller with a love for nature and a Smith & Hawken lock and attitude, our host is someone with whom viewers enjoy spending time. He/She is contemporary, stylish, fun, and charming, but deep down always practical and smart. He/She loves a mix of wide open spaces and cozy warmth, is knowledgeable enough to dig right in and lead viewers though projects, and is equally willing to learn from an expert and serve as an advocate for the viewer, by asking questions, translating, and clarifying.
The host is joined for a portion of the show by a guest expert who specializes in a project area. Some of these experts are radio personalities, newspaper columnists, and published authors. Many are teachers for the Denver Botanic Gardens, which offers many classes relating to indoor gardening. These experts provide the viewer with a sophisticated, insider’s look at many different fields of horticulture.
The set of The Inside Dirt serves a dual purpose, providing both a presentation area and a space in which to show off finished projects and demonstrate the impact they have on interior decor. The set resembles a loft-style residence, with lots of open space and featuring a palette of “just-picked produce” colors found in nature – tomato, apple green, and shades of bright bell peppers. There is a living/sitting room area to decorate with our gardening projects. The furnishings are mostly contemporary, with a few unique shabby-chic touches. Centrally located on the set is a gardening work area, with a large potting bench of stainless steel and wood, equipped with a hanging rack of tools and supplies. in the back, a set of French doors opens on to a small, working greenhouse with plants in various stages of growth. The greenhouse provides a setting for one of the program segments, as well as a support system for the plants we need to have on hand during production.
In its half-hour/four-segment format, The Inside Dirt generally presents two indoor gardening projects and one location package per show, utilizing our guest expert over the course of the program as appropriate. The projects offer a mix of innovative plant design and use, information on the latest techniques and equipment, and an opportunity to learn the skills and tricks to overcome typical gardening hurdles. Topics in these segments include indoor water gardening, hydroponics, growing orchids, creating an indoor epiphyte tree, and more.
During these projects, we regularly utilize see-through planters with the potting materials (drainage pebbles, growing medium, etc.) already assembled as an instructional tool. These completed “cutaway” views of the growing strata for each garden container enable viewers to clearly see the appropriate anatomy of the materials as we construct our own planter, and make it possible for the host and expert to move quickly through any basic assembly steps and, therefore, spend the bulk of the allotted segment time on the details that are intrinsic to a particular project.
During the second or third segment, determined by what works best for that particular program, viewers are transported from the studio to unique and interesting places in the world of gardening. The segment begins in the studio with the host, who segues into our upcoming adventure. Then we’re off around the country – we may see our project done on a much larger scale, such as the seed storage lab that holds specimens of nearly all seeds in the Western world. Or we may visit a new frontier in the world of gardening. such as “breathing walls” of plants that are installed in office buildings to remove indoor air pollutants. Or perhaps a visit to an important exposition or institution, such as the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. This location feature takes viewers to innovative. creative and, occasionally, famous sites in the world of the green and growing.
In the final segment of the show, we join the host on the set in the working greenhouse for a progress report on the The Inside Dirt’s very own crop. We report on what’s ready for harvest, what’s sprouting, trouble areas, or perhaps gain some additional words of wisdom from our expert. In this segment, we practice what we preach, managing and caring for our own productive indoor garden! This final segment offers an opportunity to dispense a little advice, demonstrate general plant housekeeping, talk the talk, and simply wallow in the joy that is gardening.
At breaks in the program, The Inside Dirt provides viewers with helpful tips and enlightening tidbits in the form of full-screen text graphics. Some of the categories of information included are:
Plant Doctor – how to deal with plant ills
Good for You – health benefits that plants provide
Green Idea – good growing suggestions and environmental tips
Gardening Myths we debunk the old wives’ tales
General information – contacts for clubs, organizations
Tool Care – simple tips
Gardening Shortcuts – when you need to speed things up
The Inside Dirt takes viewers far beyond the “one pot – one plant” growing skills of yesterday. The Inside Dirt offers the fulfillment, spirituality, and relaxing fun that comes with outdoor growing, but in a controlled and far more manageable indoor environment. Viewers learn how to bring nature into their living space, whether it’s a wild explosion of colors and shapes, or greenery tamed to create pleasing structure and form. The Inside Dirt is a meshing of nature and man into a completely new environment.