Green TV
The Garden Wise Guys Take to the Airwaves Have you caught the
hot new local gardening show yet? It’s the Garden Wise Guys, with
Billy Goodnick and Owen Dell. If you haven’t stumbled across their
first three episodes, “Right Plant, Right Place,” “How to Water
Wisely,” and “Journey to the Center of the Dirt,” their newest
offering, “A Sustainable Garden on a DEADline” premiers Tuesday,
April 18, at 8 p.m. on City TV, Channel 18. These Wise Guys don’t
claim to be professional actors, but they are professional
landscape architects (wise) with great senses of humor (wise guys)
and anyone who knows them will acknowledge that they are born
entertainers. In the course of pursuing their day jobs — Dell is
owner of County Landscape & Design and Goodnick works for the
City of Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation Department — they help
beautify our community with sustainable landscape solutions. They
sprinkle their half-hour shows with slapstick and silliness, but
their message is serious enough.
In the latest installment, Goodnick and Dell demonstrate how to
create a great-looking garden that won’t break your pocketbook or
back. Employing a campy, film noir style, they couch their advice
in an inane plotline that includes dark alleyways, dangerous drinks
and a femme fatale. While trying to recover their beloved pet
(you’ll just have to watch to see what manner of beast it is), the
Wise Guys are forced to design a fantastic garden for a gangster.
Along the way, they show you how to analyze your garden site,
select plants, and place them for maximum attractiveness with
minimum maintenance. The new garden they create features water-wise
plants and sustainable landscaping techniques that even nasty Mr. X
will find worthy.
For a full listing of show times, visit citytv18.com or call
Christy Julin at 564-5311. Episodes also air on County GATV Channel
20, Monday and Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and again on Saturdays and
Sundays at 9:30 p.m. (Visit gscares.com/GATV/programSchedule.asp). Don’t forget to
tune in every season as a new feature appears every three months.
Virginia Hayes, curator of Ganna Walska Lotusland, will answer
your gardening questions. Address them to Gardens, The Independent,
122 W. Figueroa St., S.B., CA 93101. Send email to
vahayes@lotusland.org
