Since 2023, WPBS has been working in collaboration with Adirondack Harvest member, Dani Baker, to produce a weeknight show based on her book, “The Home-Scale Forest Garden.”
The show will be on Mondays at 7:30 p.m., beginning tonight. Community members can watch the show on WPBS-TV and can stream it for free on the PBS app.
Gardening programs have been a staple of the WPBS schedule, with shows like “From a Country Garden” and “The Gardener with Ed Lawrence.” With almost 25 years since WPBS aired a show produced in-house, the station is excited to debut the new program.
“It’s really been a labor of love,” said Tracy DuFlo, director of Production and Executive Producer at WPBS. “We filmed eight episodes over the four seasons, and it was very fascinating to see Dani’s garden on Wellesley Island transform with each season. One thing I found really interesting is that there is something to harvest in a home-scale forest garden almost year-round.”
Based on Wellesley Island in the beautiful Thousand Islands Region, Baker and her partner, David Belding, own Cross Island Farms, where the Enchanted Edible Forest is located.
Baker is the author of “The Home-Scale Forest Garden,” a practical guide to creating a low-maintenance, sustainable, perennial, food-producing garden, which is the original blueprint of the show. On the farm, they grow certified organic fruit and vegetables, and raise chickens and grass-fed beef. Agritourism opportunities for visitors include U-pick fruit, farm and garden tours, rustic camping and volunteer opportunities to gain hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture.
Baker said she hopes to inspire viewers to create their own beautiful, bountiful, edible landscape at any scale, from a few dozen square feet to an acre or more.
“I am very excited and grateful to have had the opportunity to work with WPBS on a TV series about forest gardening,” Baker said. “My lifetime ambition is to inspire as many people as possible to establish this kind of planting where we work with nature to create abundant healthful harvests, while reducing our labor and helping the environment.
“A gardening show that is nationally distributed through PBS is the perfect vehicle to inform and inspire a receptive audience.”
Following the premiere of “The Home-Scale Forest Garden,” it will be released for broadcast and streaming on PBS stations nationwide later this spring.