10:37 PM Tue, May 13, 2008 | Permalink
|
No one knew longtime WHAS TV Weekend Gardener Fred Wiche better than the guy I've taken a picture of that you see in this story.
His name is Donnie Ruark and he's been with WHAS TV for 36 years now.
He's one of our veteran news photographers and Donnie worked with Fred on a regular basis for 10 years
.View larger image
Donnie had a blast with Fred, who was such a kind-hearted soul that it took him awhile to figure out he was being "had". Donnie remembered the seasonal stories that Fred would shoot for TV that tried to answer the question, "Should you rake your leaves, or just mow them over with your lawnmower creating mulch.?"
They needed a yard for a backdrop, so the two would go to Donnie's house to shoot the story. Donnie says he would stand Fred in one corner of the yard, full of leaves and then tell him to start raking for the shot. "I would then say Fred, can you do it again, I need more. No don't stop now, I still need more video. Half of my yard was raked by the time Fred caught on! We had alot of laughs over that. I got him a couple of times on that prank."
I am more convinced now than ever before that Fred Wiche was WAY ahead of his time. Look around us and what do we hear: the "greening" of this or that, global warming, conservation, go natural, grow your own. Fred's daily "Weekend Gardener" reports, broadcast on WHAS TV & Radio, espoused that advice from the day he started the segments in the mid 1970's.
Fred died ten years ago after a career that started with WHAS in 1958. He was one of the station's giant personalities. He's also in the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. Fred was also a political reporter and anchor before becoming "The Weekend Gardener."
This year also marks the 10th year of the annual Fred Wiche Award, sponsored by the city's Operation Brighside. When Fred was still alive, Mayor Jerry Abramson got him to get involved in starting Operation Brightside. After his death, Brightside created the Wiche Award. It gives cash prizes to Schools, gardeners, garden clubs, etc who keep Louisville green by following Fred's dream of improving our environment. So far they've handed out $28-thousand dollars to schools.
Send me your response, your favorite Fred Wiche gardening advice or story about Fred that you may remember. I'll post them right here.
Fred Wiche Videos from the WHAS11 Archive:
The Weekend Gardener: Sunflowers
The Weekend Gardener: Fertilizer
The Weekend Gardener: Watermelons
The Weekend Gardener: Tomatoes
Dear Doug:
Years ago my father had questions about what to do with his pear and apple trees.
I told him to call Fred Wiche and ask him. He had never heard of Fred before then and even though he watched WHAS every evening, had somehow missed out on the "Weekend Gardener."
That very evening he watched him and called him after that about his fruit trees.
That started my father's love affair with "The Weekend Gardener" and he watched Fred until the day he died.
Sometime after my father's death in 1990, I was looking through my mother's telephone book for a number and at the top of the back page there was Mr. Wiche's telephone number at WHAS written in my father's hand.
That made me smile and cry at the same time. It made me smile because I remembered the day that my dad learned of Fred Wiche, and it made me cry to know that he was no longer around to call Fred Wiche or to watch his "Weekend Gardener."
Mr. Wiche meant to much to so many in this community and surrounding areas. He left and indelible mark on this town and I am sure that he was years ahead of everyone else. The very fact that he did a segment on the news like he did was year ahead of others. I have never seen anything else like it on t.v. anywhere.
Next year when we put our tomato garden in we are going to do as you showed us on t.v. not too long ago just as Fred taught you to do. We will bend the tomato stalk with roots up, plant it, put our newspapers around the plant to cover it and put our mulch on top of it. No more weeds to contend with just as Fred would have done it.
Thank you so much for remembering Fred for us.
Mrs. Deborah Atwell
There's a piece of our property that was an old homestead, it belongs to Bernhiem Forest now. It had a nice growth of daffodils on it. When fuel costs weren't what they are now, I always liked to cut this before the Derby, Before the 4th of July, and prior to Labor day. It only gets cut once year now to control woody vegetation. I noticed the daffodils were in decline during this time and had no idea I was causing it until Fred told us to allow the foliage to die back on it's own, it was building up the energy for the following years bloom immediately after the present seasons bloom.I stopped mowing them and now that entire field is almost covered with yellow in the spring. I always laugh and think of Fred when I see the display.