What does an indoor porch, television equipment, and overhead lighting have to do with gardening? Well, they are just a few of the many elements needed to create and produce Prairie Yard and Garden, a 30-minute television show about gardening in the upper midwest. Prairie Yard and Garden is produced by the Media Services Department at the University of Minnesota, Morris in association with Pioneer Public Television on Thursday nights at 7:30 p.m.

Prairie Yard and Garden is a produced live and is transmitted to the Pioneer Public Television station in Appleton, Minnesota via microwave, then retransmitted simultaneously to over 375,000 homes in Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa. The Prairie Yard and Garden season runs from the second Thursday in October to the last Thursday in April.

During the production season, many viewers are able to learn about gardening, not only in Pioneer Public Television's broadcast area, but also on various cable outlets around the state of Minnesota, including Metro Cable Network in the Twin Cities, have Prairie Yard and Garden in their program schedule. It certainly is a show that is branching out and reaches a large audience. However, Prairie Yard and Garden has not always had such an expanded viewing audience.

In the beginning, Prairie Yard and Garden was created to achieve one goal: to give valuable information to gardeners in west central Minnesota. Anyone who has a garden or anything that resembles a flower bed can attest to the fact that gardening in Minnesota and the upper midwest can be a real challenge.

Roger Boleman, director of Media Services at the University of Minnesota, Morris recalls how the show was inspired, "Pioneer Public Television approached us wanting to know if we would be interested in producing a gardening show. Pioneer Public Television had seen a gardening show on the Nebraska Public Television network and they wanted to do one in Minnesota."

After about six months of planning and preparation, Prairie Yard and Garden grew out of a vision and bloomed into a reality on February 18, 1988. Funding from the Minnesota Extension services helped to finance and bring to life Prairie Yard and Garden.

The first season began with a ten show commitment and a positive viewer response. The first shows did not have any feature segments or video taped material. It was a studio show where a discussion on gardening topics would be conducted by the host and guest of the show. The first host of Prairie Yard and Garden was Wes Gray, a University of Minnesota horticulturist.

After the successful first season time was spent searching for financial support from sponsors and underwriters to keep the show on the air. "During the second season we didn't have the money needed to run the full ten shows like we had done the year before, so we did five to make sure people didn't forget about the show," says Boleman, "By the third season, we were gaining more and more sponsors . . . we haven't looked back since." The crew of Prairie Yard and Garden were very dedicated to the show, so they volunteered their time to keep it going.

With more sponsors backing the show, Prairie Yard and Garden was able to focus on adding variety and new topics, eventually increasing the episode count from ten in the first season, to 23 today. The list of sponsors includes the Tenth District Minnesota Horticultural Society, and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, where experts share their knowledge of gardening with Prairie Yard and Garden viewers on the weekly "Ask the Arboretum Expert" segment of the show. All of the many sponsors play a significant role in contribution to the show. "We really have variety and quality on our show," explains Sue Gooch, who has been host of the show since 1993.

The continued quality of the show is evident after a recent Pioneer Public Television viewer preference poll placed Prairie Yard and Garden as the fifth most watched program out of the station's 316 aired programs on Pioneer's schedule. Prairie Yard and Garden is also the number one locally-produced program on Pioneer's schedule. A great achievement for the show which almost didn't make it to its second season.

The crew of Prairie Yard and Garden work very hard to maintain the quality of the show. Volunteer camera operators, phone operators, consultants, and interns all work in association with the Media Services Department staff to pull the program together every week to create a show of gardening excellence.

The host, Sue Gooch, and the many wonderful guests that grace our studio porch, share their valuable expert wisdom for viewers about various gardening topics. The viewers of Prairie Yard and Garden are also a crucial and greatly appreciated part of the survival, growth and expansion of the show. We thank you, the viewers and all of the fine people who contribute their time and energy to Prairie Yard and Garden. Happy Gardening!

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Last updated: Monday, July 09, 2007