There may be a chill in the air today but it was warm and friendly yesterday on KTRS’s Inside Out Show’s earlier than normal broadcast from 11-12:30 Saturday. I am still smiling!
Like kids running in a field with outstretched arms, John and Steffie touched the tops of so many green topics that I am lagging and laughing still today! It was exhilarating!
I have heard if you listen closely you can actually hear corn “growing”, I started to wonder during this week’s show if we are growing corn in the studio, have added sound effects or if what I am hearing ( that sounds a little like crunching and whistling noises) is John going through his own “growing” spurt. If he keeps learning at this rate, his green thumb will outgrow the rest of him! I am so proud of him!
One thing is for sure, John Shea, of Collier, Thompson and Shea sounded like he has really enjoyed these recent weeks with his new co-host arrangement. I think he was impressed with Steffie’s quick and completely on target responses to the many garden calls. A worker bee himself, he seemed completely enthralled with Steffie’s energy.
Steffie is a green heart through and through, and shows it in her passion for nursery retail, landscape design, general gardening, vegetable and grape growing and heirloom plant preservation, garden writing and …so much more!
She is like her other two co-hosts; she is very involved professionally and personally with many horticulture projects, activities and endeavors. I am “blog bowing” officially now by adding all these great links (see links below) and apologizing already for whatever I have overlooked!
For me the pleasure is to be so “chat tuned” into the show. I was late calling, but we still had plenty to clamored about as we discussed the many attributes of Redtwig Dogwood as the Plant of The Week.
Cornus sericea better known as Redtwig dogwood has many homescape friendly attributes to appreciate. This shrubby dogwood’s deep red branches are stunning in the landscape in fall and winter. With a few well considered pruning cuts, He is happy to share some of his plentiful ruby colored stems as a festive accent in seasonal arrangements both inside and out!
He is totally a broad shouldered handsome and modestly low care shrub. Strong enough for rain gardens and erosion control, he can also hold onto slippery stream banks. This is a dogwood that thrive where there are periodic wet dry cycles, continuously soggy or even just routine clay soil issues.
My personal favorite attribute of this dogwood is his willingness to contribute to any habitat oriented / butterfly friendly landscape. It seems his real strength is to be able to wear rather lacey looking flowers without looking too delicate. It is pretty amazing that he can look so naturally at ease in such a nurturing role!
LINKS
John Shea, of Collier, Thompson and Shea
Garden Height’s Steffie Littlefield
Ellen Barredo, of Bowood Farms
Greenscape Gardens, Jennifer Schamber
This is the three person round robin rotation that will address the part of KTRS’s Inside Out Show’s focus on gardening, landscaping and turf care (basically the “Out” portion of the show.)
John Shea will continue with his team of experts and industry representatives from the home building industry and hardware retail suppliers as the anchor of the Inside Out Show and as professional advisor for the balance of home owner call in questions.
All three of the new Inside Out Show’s garden hosts/ experts are wonderful writers and have featured articles published on a frequent basis in the Gateway Gardener. KTRS’s website will surely be updated with this new hosting information shortly!
Faith Note:
Dare to Bare ( and bow)
As the leaves fall, the structure of my friend’s redtwig is laid bare and fully exposed, many of his strengths and weaknesses that have developed over time are obvious to me.
At this time I am grateful for this reminder that naturally this is an imperfect world. I am humbled by what I see in his branches. I can see the damage, blackened dead stubbed tips remaining from hesitant pruning cuts.
There are plenty of dead gray twigs, (a reminder that not all growth is meant to thrive) and some now obviouse without the cloak of leaves, a few random shoots have been rushing in the wrong direction!
With closer inspection, I can see some raw and irritated places where branches have crossed over each other, rubbing, chaffing, wounding each other, equally hurt, equally damaged. But then I see at my feet buried in the leafy rubble with bits and pieces of broken, fallen branches, and his scattered withered with age decaying leaves, a tiny fruit from a neighboring tree-a seed of hope. Oh how I pray I can keep this thought as I ask for God to bless me, each and every day: "Help me “re”-late!"
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