Central Texas Gardener visits my garden
“Central Texas Gardener,” a popular, 20-year-old television series produced by KLRU, Austin’s PBS affiliate, filmed my garden on Wednesday. What a thrill! In the photo above (left to right): Tatiana Miller, Jerin Crandell, and Linda Lehmusvirta—the “CTG” team that made me and my garden feel like a star.
Blogging really does pay—in the currency of fun and publicity if not in cold, hard cash. A few months ago, “Central Texas Gardener” producer Linda Lehmusvirta emailed from my blog’s contact page to ask if they could interview me and tape my garden for the show. Could they? You bet they could!
She set a date for late October, and I was excited for about one minute before anxiety set in. I looked at my garden with a newly critical eye and found much to concern me. I began “fluffing” with a vengeance. I trimmed and clipped and planted and got started on a shed remodel that I’d been planning to do later in the year. I held off on a bed redesign that would have made part of the garden look puny and new.
I even timed how long it took for my salvias and roses to rebloom after a light trim, and then I followed a trimming schedule that would have everything blooming on the right day. Nature laughs at that kind of planning. A sudden cold front delayed the roses’ rebloom and subdued the salvias. The day of taping arrived, with my vision of a garden awash in roses amid feathery ornamental grasses and colorful salvias only half realized.
And you know what? It didn’t matter. Linda, cameraman Jerin, and assistant Tatiana were relaxed and funny and generous with compliments, and right away I was having a great time. During Linda’s interview, I babbled away about the garden, and then for the next hour or so, while Jerin and Tatiana worked on shooting the garden in the most flattering light, Linda and I just gabbed like two old friends. She told me about past shows she thought I’d like (many are now viewable on YouTube; search for “KLRU gardening”); I told her about the burgeoning field of garden coaching. Naturally, we talked a lot about our favorite plants and gardens.
Jerin and Tatiana getting ready to roll camera
I’ve enjoyed “CTG” for many years. Hosted by Tom Spencer, a Mouse & Trowel Award-winning blogger from Austin, the weekly, 30-minute show airs on PBS stations throughout Texas and in New Mexico. Here’s what “CTG” is all about, according to its website:
“Central Texas Gardener” showcases exquisite Central Texas gardens and teaches how to have your own beautiful garden. . .
“Tom Spencer and I want to help gardeners avoid the mistakes we’ve made,” says Linda Lehmusvirta, the program’s producer. “Central Texas has a unique combination of soil and weather conditions. We want to provide useful information to our viewers, whether they’re new to the area, first-time homeowners who aren’t sure how to get started, or veterans looking for ideas.”
Every week host Tom Spencer visits with experts who cover a lot of ground from plant selection to design. Producer Linda Lehmusvirta consults garden experts from around the state to get you the most up-to-date information on gardening in Central Texas.
Guests include growers, designers, nursery owners and authors. Visits to local gardens share homegrown stories and philosophies. Location footage captures inspiring ideas created by weekend gardeners on a budget, as well as techniques suggested by professional designers and landscape architects.
Austin is lucky to have this terrific, homegrown gardening series. My thanks to Linda for including me in it—and to all three for being good sports about being blogged about. I promised her that I’d make them look good if she’d make me look good, but keeping my word didn’t take any effort. The whole experience was wonderful, and I am so happy to have met all three of them.
I’m sure you are dying to know when “my” show will air. Well, I am too. Linda told me it could be as soon as next spring or not until next fall. I’ll let you know when I find out.
Meanwhile, several hours after they’d departed, the first of the new roses opened.
P.S. The website for “CTG” lists local garden blogs on its Resources page, which I appreciate. Also, check out Linda’s CTG garden blog.
Pretty cool, Pam. I’ve never seen a garden of anyone I know on CTG. I’ll be looking forward to watching.
— S
A star is born. OOOOOoooooooooo and we get to see your garden and read your blog for nothing. Congrats on the filming. Of course we all know your garden deserves to be on tv.
So exciting! Congratulations! And of course we’ll all be waiting to hear about the show so we can watch it (on YouTube since I’m not in the area). Yay for you! ~A 🙂
How exciting! And I can’t help laughing at the best of intentions to have the garden in bloom. Of course, if it ain’t the heat that’s killing us its the cold that is thwarting our best laid plans. I’m sure it looked phenomenal anyway.
Congratulations, Pam!
From your post today (plus a happy visit to your garden earlier this year) surely this program will be a gem. Please let us know as soon as the station gives you a run time (and hey, ain’t it great to be blogging, rather than having to wait 6 mos. or a year?)
J.
Congratulations, Pam! I’m sure that your lovely garden will give fellow Austinites inspiration for their own gardens, the way it has for me and other readers of “Digging.”
Like Bonnie, I couldn’t help but laugh at the roses and salvias being late, and the one lovely rose finally opening up a few hours after they left. Ma Nature does let us know that she is still in charge in spite of our best efforts, doesn’t she? 🙂
ps. Please let us know when it airs and then goes up on YouTube. I obviously can’t see the live broadcast, but I’d love to catch it on the web!
Pam, this is so exciting! Congratulations! You deserve the recognition and you have so much knowledge to offer. I glad you had a day in the spotlight.
Congratulations. How can I see it?
Good for you! Having seen the garden myself, and having seen garden photographers at work, I am sure they had no trouble finding good shots–roses or no! Has that vitex met the executioner yet, or is that one more thing waiting until “after”?
Margaret and I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes preview last week; I’m sure your garden will come out looking, well, as pretty as a picture for it’s TV debut.
I love the photos of your garden up on the site and a virtual walk through your garden via youtube sounds brilliant.
Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the support!
Bill, my understanding is that Linda will let me know before it airs, and then I’ll mention it on Digging. For one week after it airs, it will be viewable on “CTG”‘s website. After that, it should be available on YouTube.
Kathy, the vitex got a stay of execution until after the taping—and until we got cool enough weather to plant its replacement. Now it’s just a matter of finding the time to tackle it . . .
—Pam/Digging
Pam… Congratulations! I can’t wait to see you and your garden on YouTube. That’s going to be a big event in the blogosphere.
And what is this that I read you are cutting down the Vitex? I trust your good judgment on doing this and I know you’ve got a suitable replacement already picked out. But still, I know it won’t be easy for you to do. Good luck!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens (where it is overcast and misty out, too wet to do anything in the garden today!)
Yes, that vitex looks great for two or three months out of the year, but the rest of the year it’s scraggly looking. As the centerpiece of the front garden, that just won’t do. I’m taking it down this fall and replacing it with a crepe myrtle. It was a hard decision, but I’m ready to move forward with the change now that my mind’s made up. I will, of course, be blogging about it. 🙂 —Pam
When you first told about the scheduled taping it sounded exciting but stressful – I’m so glad the experience turned out to be pleasant, Pam. Linda Lemusvirta’s face and voice are so familiar to us from KLRU – it may have seemed like meeting an old friend when she arrived with her team. Thanks for the link to the e-letter.
I can sympathize with your reluctant blooms – when the Divas came here last week three blossoms on the ‘Julia Child’ rose had had dropped their petals, leaving only a few tight buds, and the Brugmansia had just dropped the fading trumpets with only small green buds-in-waiting. Right when I wanted them to show off for my friends! It does make one think the flowers are doing it on purpose.
Congratulations, Pam – you do have an “exquisite Central Texas Garden” and it deserves the showcase.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
You are exactly right—when I saw Linda at the door I said, ridiculously, “I think we’ve already met.” Of course, we hadn’t ; I’d just seen her on KLRU’s pledge drives, and I’d heard her voice-overs on “CTG.” But she is very warm, and meeting her did feel like meeting an old friend.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Annie. I have faith in the film crew and in Linda’s editing, but I do hope the garden (and I) appear worthy on television. —Pam
Nothing so sure as a someone or something being camera shy on the day.
Isn’t that the truth. The roses and I both were. Thanks for dropping by, Bare Bones Gardener. I’m hearing from more and more Aussies these days. —Pam
WOW and CONGRATULATIONS!!! Between Mouse & Trowel and CTG, your well-deserved celebrity status skyrockets! Please keep a small corner of your heart open for those of us who “knew you when.” 🙂
Julie, you are way too kind. You know, while I’m happy to have my 15 minutes (or even 5), I’m also happy just to know that Digging or my garden occasionally brightens someone’s day.
Thanks for de-lurking and the pat on the back. Hey, tell me how your new garden is growing sometime. I’m sure it’s looking beautiful. —Pam
Hey cool! What a stressful time it must have been. Good grief, all the cleaning, edging, mulching, pruning, deadheading that must have gone on before the taping would have done me in. The to be expected to say something interesting about the plants…yikes. I wonder if you could get an lower resolution version of the taping and put it on YouTube or other video sites? I sure would like to see it.
Thanks, Ki. Actually, the interview itself was more fun than I expected, thanks to Linda and her crew. God knows what I said though—it’s all a blur in my memory. As I mentioned to Bill, my understanding is that Linda will let me know before it airs, and then I’ll mention it on Digging. For one week after it airs, it will be viewable on “CTGâ€â€™s website. After that, it should be available on YouTube. —Pam
By the way, Linda Lehmusvirta looks exactly like one of my high school English teachers here in Indiana. They say everyone has a twin somewhere. The resemblance is remarkable!
Ha! I think I must have several of those “twins.” I get that all the time from people. I wonder if Linda does too. 🙂 —Pam
Congratulations, Pam, I know how stressful it is to have a garden “at perfection” for a specific event!! Thanks, too, for all the additional contact information.
Thanks, Jocelyn. I’ve got a lot to learn about getting my garden ready for a shoot. My first attempt didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. Do you have any tried and true tips? That would make a good post, wouldn’t it? Many people want their gardens to look great for a specific event, from a family wedding to a garden dinner with friends to a neighborhood garden tour. —Pam
I realize I am very late to this party, but congratulations on being filmed for “Central Texas Gardener” in 2007. I loved that show when we lived in Austin. I started reading your blog from the archives – day one, and am slowly working my way into the present. Sometimes I peek at the current entry — it looks like you live in NW Austin now — but I don’t want to spoil the story! Your garden is quite the inspiration — I’m even trying to spruce up our vegetable garden to be beautiful since I spend so much of my summer there! (I’m even incorporating a bottle tree.) Now back to reading your blog on this cold and snowy/rainy Idaho day.
Thanks so much, Mary Ann! I’m flattered to think that you’re bothering to read all those posts. It’s become quite a long story at this point. Yep, we’re in NW Austin now, and the new garden continues to provide lots of material for the blog. Here’s hoping spring comes soon for you. —Pam