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Diversions

How does your garden grow?

Whether you have a lush landscape or a barren back yard, Paul James, HGTV's Gardener Guy, can help. Catch him at Tampa's GreenFest 2007 on Friday and Saturday.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published March 22, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [HGTV] Paul James, HGTV’s Gardener Guy.

Our fantasy gardens boast the unblemished blossoms, glossy foliage and espresso-powder soil we so often see in magazines and television shows.

Paul James, the Gardener Guy, wishes us well, but don't count on him for that sort of perfection.

The host of HGTV's Gardening by the Yard and featured speaker for GreenFest 2007 in Tampa this weekend works his own turf in Tulsa, Okla.

He is a master gardener with years of experience who figures his horticultural mistakes may help spare others the frustrations he has suffered.

"I don't have a staff of gardeners," he said during a telephone interview. "I do all the work myself. If I have plants ravaged by disease, I'm going to show it. If I have a plant that's dead, I'm going to show it."

As a youngster digging weeds in the searing August heat, he couldn't have been less enthusiastic about gardening.

"I hated it," James said. "I learned I had sweat glands in places I didn't know I had sweat glands."

His passion for growing things dates to the late 1970s, when he bought his first home.

"I was digging up a garden before I even unpacked the kitchen stuff," he said.

His mistakes help you

James enjoys question-and-answer sessions at events like GreenFest and the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival near Orlando, where he will make his ninth annual appearance later in the spring. He calls himself a humble gardener, but his audiences at Epcot hail from the United States and well beyond.

"Gardens really don't differ as much as people think," he said. Many plants that are familiar to Floridians - azaleas, camellias and pines, for example - thrive in Asia, for example.

So what has the Gardener Guy learned from the horticultural house of horrors?

He has tips for the garden-impaired as well as the proficient.

"First and foremost, don't plant anything that's prone to pest and disease problems," he said. "Roses are a great example."

They're great. He loves them as much as the rest of us do. But many rose varieties are vulnerable, and fending off bugs, powdery mildew and other problems can frustrate casual gardeners.

Better to consult knowledgeable salespeople at nurseries and gardening departments in big-box stores.

"There are a lot of rugged, low-maintenance plants out there," James said, encouraging variety over the what he calls the cookie-cutter landscapes throughout the United States.

Be good to the soil

Not all pest control is created equal, not even all organic methods.

"I've been an organic gardening purist for 30 years," James said. "However, I have issues with the way organic gardeners use things like garlic oil. Garlic oil will kill good bugs and bad bugs."

Other keys: Don't water or fertilize too much or too little. And make sure plants have a hospitable environment.

"The secret's in the soil," he said. Routinely adding compost, shredded leaves and other organic matter will transform anything, even dirt that requires "a jackhammer or dynamite or both, just to dig a hole.

"It never ceases to amaze me. People will buy plants, plop them into some really nasty soil, and four weeks later they're dead."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Gardening Association and the National Arbor Day Foundation have made regional climate assessments to help gardeners.

Just as humans thrive with good nutrition, so do plants.

"If you spend the time to prepare good soil, you will have healthy plants, and healthy plants are more disease-resistant," James said.

Mary Jane Park can be reached at 727 893-8267 or park@sptimes.com.

GreenFest 2007

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine. Paul James speaks from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. (The GreenFest luncheon is a separate event, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at A La Carte Event Pavilion, 4050 Dana Shores Drive, Tampa. Individual tickets: $60, $100 for patrons.)

Where: Plant Park, University of Tampa, 401 W Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

Admission: $3 suggested donation; children under 12 free.

Information: Full schedule, maps, directions: www.tampagreenfest.com.

More gardening festivals

April 5-June 3: Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, Epcot, Orlando. On the Web, go to www.disney.com, then search Epcot garden festival.

April 14-15: USF Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Festival, Tampa. On the Web: www.cas.usf.edu/garden.

April 21: Family EarthFest, Florida Botanical Gardens, Pinewood Cultural Center, Largo. On the Web: www.flbg.org.

April 28-29: Green Thumb Festival, Walter Fuller Park, St. Petersburg. On the Web: www.stpete.org.

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 11:27:49]