Madeline de Vries Hooper & Jeff Hughes

Gardening can be a prime source of aches and pains, from a bad back to tendonitis – now “GardenFit,” the new public television series, combines inspiring visits to extraordinary gardens with professional advice on how to keep your gardening healthy.

In the interest of maintaining my own lifelong love of gardening until the very very last moment possible, and all of you gardeners out there doing the same, I am so pleased to be in conversation today with not only an expert gardener but also a fitness expert the two have come together to create a fascinating and innovative new approach to engaging gardeners around the concept of lifelong garden-based fitness: GardenFit, founded by Madeline Hooper and Jeff Hughes, a 13-part PBS series covering 14 gardeners living in all parts of the US.

What's your most important gardening tool? A new public television series reminds us that it’s not a trowel or pruner or spade, but our body, which can also be stressed by gardening if we don’t know how to look after it. “Taking care of your body while taking care of your garden, that’s our mission,” the creators of the GardenFit program say.

We all know that gardening can be great exercise. But, all that physical activity can sometimes lead to aches and pains. Join expert gardener Madeline Hooper and professional fitness trainer Jeff Hughes as they visit some of the most beautiful private gardens and farms in the U.S. While there, they gather gardening inspiration and tips from the garden hosts, while trainer Jeff Hughes teaches techniques to counteract the physical toll that gardening can have on the body. Learn how to not only care for your garden, but also your body, in this new series on PBS.

Garden experts Madeline de Vries Hooper and fitness trainer Jeff Hughes are on a mission to help others take care of their most important garden tool—their bodies.