Biography: HELEN CHESNUT

She says her father used to gather the blooms regularly through the summer to give to hospitals or donate as decoration at various community events. At home he taught her his "puddling" method of transplanting and gave her a little plot to grow a salad garden.

While Helen's father worked at the radio station, a garden center expressed a desire to sponsor a local garden program. When he could not find anyone to do such a program, her father decided to produce it himself.

The popularity of the radio program prompted the Victoria Colonist newspaper to ask him to write a daily garden column. This "side career" expanded over the years with radio programs on a half dozen western Canadian stations and a column in several newspapers. Her father took to this new career so readily he retired early from the radio station to become a full-time gardening writer and broadcaster.

Helen's career as garden columnist was inherited from her father. After teaching high school English in southeastern British Columbia and Uganda, she gardened in the Okanagan Valley of southern British Columbia for several years before returning to Vancouver Island six months before her father died. Because his death was so sudden, with no time for him to say goodby to his devoted readership of 26 years, Helen wrote an account of his last days and attempted to say that goodbye for him. All the papers he had written for published it, and her career as a gardening writer was born.

Helen has written over 5,000 weekly gardening columns for many newspapers, including the Vancouver Province and the Victoria Times-Colonist, since her career began in the spring of 1980. She also is the author of many gardening magazine articles. Since 1991 Helen has also produced an annual gardening calendar. Known to thousands of readers as a practical and innovative gardener, she eagerly tests new varieties and techniques and loves to shower guests with gifts of her garden's bounty.