Review: Zach Galifianakis' charming 'This Is a Gardening Show' gives you food for thought

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“This Is a Gardening Show” is a gardening show hosted by Zach Galifianakis, who is not kidding when he says (and says again) that “the future is agrarian.” (Or, more critically, “the only future is agrarian.”) Premiering Wednesday, which not coincidentally is Earth Day, on Netflix, the six-part series spotlights the cultivation or gathering of plants one eats, rather than which just look pretty, with episodes on apples, tomatoes, root vegetables, corn, foraging and compost.“Food,” says the host.

“From what I hear, you have to have it.”Galifianakis, who lives remotely in British Columbia and has been gardening “off and on” for 25 years, is no Monty Don.He’s here as a student himself; meeting with growers of an independent sort — the series was shot on Vancouver Island — on their charmingly rustic farms, seeking their guidance, tasting their wares.

He’s genuinely sincere about the subject, even if he’ll top a comment like, “I want to die in a garden,” with “The Olive Garden — I want to overdose on breadsticks,” as if he can’t resist such low-hanging fruit.Each episode includes time-lapse photography of things growing, short animated interludes on the history of the designated fruit, vegetable or fungus, a little science and some practical advice.(“Did you know that?” I repeatedly asked my gardening wife and mostly she did, but sometimes she did not.)I recognize that it’s a dereliction of cultural duty never to have seen any of the “Hangover” movies, the work that will likely lead Galifianakis’ obituary, may it be long in coming.

But I have often had cause to celebrate his television appearances: his triple act with Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson in the hangout mystery “Bored to Death”; his twin roles in the sad-clown story “Baskets”; as an acerbic version of himself in “Only Murders in the Building.” His disa...