Almanac Gardener is UNC-TV’s own half-hour, home horticultural series.  Airing annually from April to August, the 20-week series is one of the statewide public television network's longest-running original programs, celebrating its 25th anniversary season in 2008. Series host Mike Gray and experts from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service answer viewer questions and feature helpful, how-to segments produced in locales throughout the Tar Heel State.

Regular Almanac Gardener Extension panelists include:

• Karen Neill, Horticultural Agent, Guilford County;
• Linda Blue, Horticultural Agent, Buncombe County;
• Bill Lord, Environmental Agent, Franklin County;
• Lucy Bradley, Urban Horticultural Specialist, NCSU;
• Stephen Greer, Horticultural Agent, Forsyth County; and
• Susan Ruiz-Evans, Horticultural Agent, Dare County.

This season, airing Saturdays at noon, beginning April 5, Almanac Gardener's half-hour episodes will focus on helping home gardeners deal with the drought using Water Wise Gardening. In addition, the series features weekly, water saving tips on such topics as: Permaculture…the No Waste Landscape, Building a Rain Barrel, Installing Cisterns, Using Recycled Water, Drip Irrigation, Drought Tolerant Plants for the Landscape, Water Saving Mulches, Building a Rain Garden, Controlling Storm Water Run Off and How Much Water Do Your Plants Really Need?

During the 25th anniversary season, Almanac Gardener also features helpful advice on Using Native Stone in Your Landscape, Starting a Spring Vegetable Garden, Growing Mushrooms at Home, Growing Vegetables in Containers, Attracting Beneficial Insects, Pruning Trees, Building a Dry Stack Stone Wall, Starting Shrubs from Cuttings, The New Hanover Ability Garden, Gardening with Your Kids, and Three Most Popular North Carolina Strawberry Varieties.

Click here to see the history behind Almanac Gardener's 25th anniversary season.

Click here to e-mail the Almanac Gardener experts all of your gardening questions.

And for bushels of online gardening information, links to great gardening sites, and a guide to the Cooperative Extension Service Centers in your area, don't forget to visit North Carolina State University's informative Consumer Horticulture website.

Funding for Almanac Gardener is provided by
Fafard/Wyatt-Quarles and Black Kow/Wyatt-Quarles.