Madeline Hooper

OF ‘GARDENFIT’ ON PBS

What inspired you to make a show about fitness for gardeners?

I think just to say that we really wanted to do something that would treat people, and that’s because I garden a lot and I have a lot of aches and pains. And a fellow gardener really recommended Jeff (Hughes, her cohost and physical therapist) very highly. He had solved his big issues with his shoulder. And I went to see him and really in no time he kind of found what was wrong with me and helped me correct how I garden, how I use my body. And it just inspired me and it made me feel that every gardener should know Jeff’s approach to fitness. So we came up with this mission.

What are common physical mistakes you see gardeners make?

I think one common mistake ... all of them overwork. So they see a bed and they want to take all the weeds out of it and they really don’t leave until they finish that task, and that’s when they need Jeff the most . ...

It’s also about the mind because so many gardeners think that they’re doing a lot of exercise and they are and they are very physically inclined to work hard in their garden. But to do it correctly, to have an understanding, to watch Jeff do these fixes that are so common sense that I think people can actually do what he is demonstrating.

And that is the difference, I think, with “Gardenfit,” the marriage between a beautiful garden and wanting to have one and then actually enjoying working in it as opposed to straining your body. So I think that’s the wind in our wings and what Jeff does that I feel and we both know will make gardeners actually enjoy their gardening so much more.