The Weekend Gardener returns for season twelve
Posted May 5, 2019 01:49:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Niki Jabbour is back from 11a.m. to 1p.m. on Sundays starting May 5.
The longest running radio show on NEWS 95.7 is now in it's 12th year, and has seen a lot of changes since it first began.
“We've changed a lot of the topics we talk about. Back then vegetable gardening wasn't actually all that popular,” says Jabbour.
While the show used to be about potted plants and perennials, more and more people are growing their own food.
“A lot of people and homeowners want to have a vegetable garden, whether it's a small little raised bed or a couple of containers of herbs on their back deck,” Jabbour tells NEWS 95.7's The Sheldon MacLeod Show.
Garden centres and nurseries have also recognized the changing trends.
“A lot of the plant breeders are producing trees, shrubs, perennials, even vegetables and herbs that are super compact,” Jabbour adds. “They're really good for containers, or if you only have a tiny little space you can still grow some of these plants.”
Jabbour says community gardens have also played a big role in getting people into vegetable gardening.
“Community gardens across the maritimes are popping up. Even people that might have their own land but they still want to be part of that community, they still get a bed at their community garden,” she says.
When she first started, Jabbour says she had no idea what she was doing.
“I wasn't trained in radio,” she says. “If you made me listen to my shows from back then, I'd cringe the whole time.”
But now, expert guests and years of experience have improved the listening experience.
The growing use of social media has also changed how people interact with The Weekend Gardener.
“We don't really get a lot of phone calls anymore,” Jabbour says. “But our Twitter just lights up during the whole two hours of the show. We get hundreds of tweets and questions and comments and pictures and people send us all these great pictures from their gardens, what they're eating, what they're growing.”
The kick off episode of The Weekend Gardener will take place this weekend at Oceanview Home & Garden Centre in Chester, N.S.
“We'll do our best to answer every single question that comes through during our two hour show,” Jabbour says.
Listen to The Weekend Gardener live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. here.
NEWS 95.7 is owned by Rogers Communications, a partner of HalifaxToday.ca.
