At the end of one of the episodes of his new docuseries This Is A Gardening Show, Zach Galifianakis says “The future is agrarian,” and he means it. The comedian and actor has been farming and gardening for a quarter century, and he admits he isn’t an expert. He learns a lot of new things in this fast-moving, often funny six-part series.

THIS IS A GARDENING SHOW: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: We see various fruits and vegetables growing in a garden. Then Zach Galifianakis walks out of a greenhouse and sits in front of the camera. “I’m Zach Galifianakis, and this is a gardening show,” he says.

The Gist: Galifianakis has been gardening since, as he says, for 25 years. But he readily admits he’s not an expert. “That’s why I wanted to do the show so I, personally, can learn, and why not pass on the savings to you guys?”

In each 15-16 minute episode, Galifianakis finds out as much as he can about an aspect of gardening, whether it’s about varieties of apples or tomatoes, root vegetables or corn, and he also learns the art of foraging and how to make the best compost. But the show is done in a very Zach Galifianakis way, with a lot of his sincere but deadpan reactions to things, as well as moments where things get a little awkward.

But Galifianakis loves gardening and wants to learn. And, as we see during segments where he talks to kids about the particular episode’s subject, he really wants to impart that knowledge onto others. He really does feel that humans are at their best when they lead an agrarian life.

Also in each episode, Galifianakis walks around with an expert in whatever topic the episode is about, like when he talks to Danielle, who manages an apple farm. There he learns that apple trees are grown from grafts of other trees instead of seeds, and she teaches him how to do a type of graft. He also bobs for apples with the kids.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? This Is A Gardening Show is a cross between The Victory Garden and Between Two Ferns.

Our Take: This Is A Gardening Show is fun simply because Galifianakis is having fun. Of course, Zach being Zach, his version of having fun isn’t unbridled joy, it’s more of a lighthearted awkwardness than anything else. But make no mistake: He’s not trying to be awkward like he is on Ferns. He just knows that he can use his natural awkwardness to his advantage to make a gardening show that gives some information without being boring.

There are interstitials that impart a few stats about the episode’s subject; in the tomato episode, for instance, we learned that Americans eat about 22-24 pounds of tomatoes every year, about half of which is in the form of ketchup or sauce. Those kind of tidbits are about as stat-heavy as the show gets, as it’s trying to show Galifianakis learning something new about the episode’s subject that he can take with him in his own gardening efforts.

It’s not like there aren’t funny moments, though, like when Galifianakis talks to a kid who says he hates apples, but it’s only because biting into one made his loose tooth “wiggly.” In a credit sequence, he’s seen playing cello to an apple orchard, and it’s pretty obvious that his head has been digitally plopped onto the body of Danielle (yes, the apple expert also plays cello).

But what we really found refreshing is that Galifianakis and the show’s producers don’t try to weigh down each episode with goofiness. That should go a long way to making these quick episodes easy to watch and learn from.

Performance Worth Watching: We loved watching the kids that agreed to be interviewed by Galifianakis, who is a fiftysomething kid at heart. In the tomato episode, one agrees to talk as a cold rain starts coming down, and he hangs in there.

Sex And Skin: None.

Parting Shot: We talked about the scene with Galifianakis “playing cello” for a bunch of apple trees.

Sleeper Star: All of the experts are informative, and they get more than enough enthusiasm from Galifianakis to not get thrown off by his innate awkwardness.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find. The episodes are all short and move pretty quckly.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While This Is A Gardening Show has some degree of Zach Galifianakis’ brand of awkward comedy, it doesn’t overwhelm his enthusiasm for the subject and how much that enthusiasm informs each episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.