Australian author Kate Morton once wrote in regards to gardening that “it was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.”
Folks in Fargo are still waiting for the warm earth. However, last Thursday, “Plant Talk with Dave DeCock” on The Jack & Sandy Show started up again for its 2014 season on KFGO, and people from around the Red River Valley were already asking questions about their yards and gardens.
Although he’s been retired for ten years, Dave DeCock still maintains his presence in the gardening community through his radio show. The man behind “Plant Talk with Dave DeCock” has been a part of Cass County’s horticulture family since 1976. Tending to the family gardens on his boyhood farm near Wadena, MN, sparked his interest in the industry. After a spending six years in the Navy, DeCock returned to the Midwest and began studying engineering at MSUM, back when it was known as Moorhead State University. He switched majors and focused on horticulture, continuing his studies at NDSU to obtain his Masters degree. He credits his career change to his ever-present interest in plants and other growing things. “Plants don’t talk back,” he joked.
After graduation, DeCock began his profession as the 4-H Extension Agent in Ada, MN, in 1976. After six months, he returned to Fargo as the Cass County Horticultural Extension Agent. “My extension work was typically one-to-one contact. I answered phone calls, office calls, and utilized mass media. I did news articles and TV and radio spots,” DeCock said. “I held a lot of horticulture meetings for people to attend, and was very active in the Master Gardener program. I had a webpage as well. The whole thing was to reach as many people as I could.”
Part of his work included making home visits to people who needed his help, because gardening produces questions that can’t always be answered over the phone. To be sure, most things can be easily answered without an on-site visit, but “sometimes people want you to come over and take a look just to be sure.”
“I’ve been on KFGO for twenty-five years,” DeCock continued. “I was on KFGO even before Sandy was, and initially worked with Dave Lee, who is now with WCCO in the Twin Cities.” Every Thursday during the growing season, DeCock joins The Jack & Sandy Show and answers questions from listeners about their plants via texts, phone calls, and emails. His answers are quick and knowledgeable; he doesn’t spend time “hemming” and “hawing” while he comes up with a reply. “You kinda know what types of questions you’re going to get this time of year, especially after you’ve done it for so many years,” he said. “The longer you do it, the easier it gets. Most of my answers come off the top of my head.”
He is also quick to confess that he doesn’t know everything. Although his experience and knowledge is vast, he admits it when he doesn’t know the answer to someone’s question. “There are things I don’t know, like propagating orchids!” he laughed. “They’re a very specialized plant.”
DeCock suggested calling your local extension office for more answers to horticulture questions, or looking up answers online. “The problem about going online is that you need to find a local source. [Researching] orchids won’t make a difference, but you will need a local source to get the right information for perennials, trees and shrubs etc.”
His own yard is a mixture of perennials and a few annuals. In prior years, DeCock has had an extensive produce garden, but now keeps it simple with a few tomatoes and cucumbers, and mostly flowers and other plants. “I’m always changing plants around. If I find something isn’t doing what I like, I don’t hesitate to pull it out and try something else. It’s always fun to try something new. I try to get perennials, which bloom at different times, so that I always have something flowering outside.”
In the field of horticulture, DeCock admits that sometimes experience outweighs education. “When I started my job, I had a Masters degree and I was surprised at how ignorant I was and how few questions I could answer. Degrees are fine, but when you start dealing with people and their problems, there’s nothing like experience. Experience is what matters.”
Although Midwesterners are a long way off from experiencing the warm earth, as the weather gradually gets warmer and you find yourself with gardening questions or just hungering for the promise of springtime, listen in to “Plant Talk with Dave DeCock” on The Jack & Sandy Show, Thursdays at 11:00 am on KFGO, The Mighty 790AM, or call Todd Weinmann, the local Cass County Horticulture and Forestry Extension