Dorothy Dobbie is a gardener by birth. The great outdoors is her natural home, and she is fascinated by all things green and growing. She likes to look closely at the hows and whys of growing and loves to hear and learn from others. In her 20 years of radio broadcasting, she has interviewed hundreds of gardeners and garden experts. She sees it as her mission to ensure that listeners learn something while having fun listening and being immersed in the garden world. There is a lot of laughter and discovery on her shows.
Dorothy has done a few other things as she proceeded through life, much of it centred around the garden. She started a publishing business where she writes about gardens, served as chair of Tree Canada and Trees Winnipeg, is the current president of the International Peace Garden, and was a board member of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. In some of her spare time, she writes a garden blog, the Gardening Canuck. She authored the Book of 10 Neat Things2, all about cool garden and nature facts.
She also loves music (she spent five years at the Chair of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra) and has been known to burst into song during her broadcast.
Along the way, she spent some time as a member of Parliament and is now president of the Association of Former Parliamentarians, managed her businesses and raised two daughters. The youngest, Shauna, is now the publisher of Canada’s Local Gardener magazine. Shauna and Dorothy also do a podcast at localgardner.net.
The Gardener show was the number one show on weekend radio in Winnipeg for many years, listened to by thousands as they ate a leisurely breakfast or lay abed late as they relaxed to the pleasant talk. Now, listeners can take Dorothy into the garden with them to listen and dream as they work.
Click here to listen to The Gardener by Dorothy Dobbie.