Drought Tolerant Gardening

Addressed specifically to Southern California homeowners, this guide to drought-tolerant gardening is comprised of a 32-minute overview of this method of gardening, followed by a 27-minute catalogue of over 50 flowering shrubs which would be suitable for drought-tolerant gardening. Producer James Lashly plays a novice homeowner who is instructed in the mysteries of designing, planting, and maintaining (through drip irrigation) a garden by professional organic gardener Alasdair Coyne. Although the information is good, the production values are weak, with washed-out looking video, fades instead of edits, and dubbed-in narration to go with the shots. On top of that, Lashly's humor, while unquestionably good-natured, also adds a whole lot of unnecessary scenes and shots to the production (top-notch comedy writers make anywhere from many thousands to millions of greenbacks per annum...for a reason). The uniqueness of the program is ultimately outweighed by the substandard production and the fact that the audience is pretty much limited to Southern California. Not recommended. (Available from: Organic Television Workshop, P.O. Box 964, Ojai, CA 93024; (805) 646-9958.)