It is the softly spoken radio show that provides good-natured help and advice to thousands of gardeners every week.
So regular listeners to Gardeners’ Question Time may be horrified to discover it has been accused of peddling racial stereotypes.
According to one academic, the Radio 4 panel show is riddled with "racial meanings" disguised as horticultural advice.
Dr Ben Pitcher, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Westminster, claimed the programme’s regular discussions on soil purity and non-native species promote nationalist and fascist beliefs.
Speaking on another Radio 4 programme, Thinking Allowed, he said: “Gardeners’ Question Time is not the most controversial show on Radio 4, and yet it is layered with, saturated with, racial meanings.
“The context here is the rise of nationalism. The rise of racist and fascist parties across Europe. Nationalism is about shoring up a fantasy of national integrity. My question is, what feeds nationalism? What makes nationalism powerful?”
Dr Pitcher said the “crisis in white identity in multicultural Britain” meant people felt unable to express their views for fear of being called racist, so expressed their racial identity in other ways, such as talking about gardening.
He said: “Nationalism is historically about narratives of blood and soil.
“The distinction that gets made between native species and non-native species and this kind of policing of what belongs and what does not belong I think is symptomatic of a kind of desire to defend the fantasy of the national space.”
Speaking on the same programme, Lola Young, a crossbench peer and former professor of cultural studies, backed Dr Pitcher’s analysis.
She added: “I remember back in the late 80s-early 90s when rhododendrons were seen as this huge problem, and people were talking about going out rhododendron-bashing.
She compared it to a time when P*** bashing was something that was all too prevalent on our streets.
However Stefan Buczacki, a hoticulturalist appeared on the programme for 13 years, said Dr Pitcher’s claims were “utterly absurd”.
He told the Daily Mail: “Many things have been said about Gardeners’ Question Time, but you can’t say it is racist,’ he said. ‘His comments show a complete lack of understanding of the natural world.
“Gardeners understand the fluidity of species over space and time.
“They come and go, and adapt to different environments. That is what we mean by native and non-native species. It has nothing whatsoever to do with nationalism or racism.
‘There is enough real racism in the world without looking for it in places it doesn’t exist.”
A BBC spokesman said: “The passing mention of Gardeners’ Question Time was part of a broader discussion about language and race... the comment simply reflected the programme’s use of accepted gardening and horticultural terminology.”