Brian - Interview about his time as Gardenline host

Garden Line host has a passion for his job ~ On Campus News feature article September 5, 1997 ~

The manufacturers of diazinon or 2,4-D wouldn't want Brian Baldwin as one of their sales reps.
As the current Garden Line host who this summer fielded thousands of calls from gardeners anxious about lawns, trees, shrubs, vegetables, and flowers, he says he is "continually talking people out of spraying."

All summer, he's hit with a battery of people who believe that a garden problem is solved only when poison has been applied.

"As a student here 10 years ago, I was shocked to discover how chemically dependent gardeners believe themselves to be."

Many people, he says, feel that even if there is no bug present they should spray - just in case!
In Baldwin's estimation, people garden either through the application of products or the application of knowledge.

"Good gardeners apply knowledge first and products second. Often it's something as easy as understanding that a few holes chewed in the leaves of your shrub may be more a crisis for you than it is for your shrub. But this isn't something you're likely to hear if all garden information sources are financed through the sale of products."
He says that most callers are very appreciative but finds that he has to "lock antlers" with the odd one who's determined that an industrial strength pesticide should be available for use in the home garden.

Residues that kill
"Every spring at least one homeowner uses something like Tordon to kill dandelions. Later that summer I hear from them when they discover herbicide residue has killed their vegetables. They don't like hearing that these residues will kill their vegetables next year, and the year after that, and possible the year after that, but what can I do?"

He says use of anything other than domestically registered pesticides is illegal without proper licensing to prevent this sort of situation, but warnings on product labels seldom stop those who are determined that their problem warrant a chemical that provides a "deader kind of death."
Baldwin, with a BSc (biology), BSA (horticulture), and a masters degree in horticulture (1994), does make at least one exception to his anti-pesticide crusade: he approves of the biological pesticide B.t. (Bacillus thuringiensis).

"It's not like the older, sledge hammer kind of pesticides that can kill a wide spectrum of other non-target organisms, including many beneficial insects and song birds."
After counseling people for 10 years on responsible gardening both on the Garden Line and in a regular column he writes for Saskatchewan newspapers, he says that the glimmer of a shifting attitude is visible.

A window to the University
Some people who call Garden Line don't have gardening in mind at all. Many use Garden Line as a window to the University. They're re-surfacing a driveway and want to know about asphalt sealants, or almost anything else. Baldwin says he does his best to steer them in the right direction.

But of course most of the 40 to 70 calls a day do relate to gardening, and the questions are legion. This year, the summer Garden Line has been a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday service only. Baldwin gives priority to people who take the time to come to the office (Agriculture Atrium, west side).

Phone callers - who typically have to dial 966-5865 a number of times before getting through - receive the next level of priority, along with those who write letters and send plant samples.
"I no longer have the time to respond to e-mail - too elitist! - and only in the off-season can I offer advice via phone messages."

Baldwin doubts that an Internet-based Garden Line is the way to go because it overlooks the regional nature of horticulture. "When a web-browsing Californian is asking a prairie boy for tips on growing an avocado crop, everyone's time is being wasted."

The very popular service has fallen victim to eroding funding over the past decade, reducing summertime staff to one person three-days-a-week from three people five-days-a-week.
"Ideally, we would love to receive some form of endowment that would permit full-time operation. Of course it's not something we can count on," Baldwin says.

(See more about Brian here)