Gardening guru Paul Parent has died

[Bill Smith]

I missed Meteorologist Todd Glickman's contribution on the death of Paul
Parent and was sorry to hear it.

For several years in the early 90s, I had the Sunday morning news shift  at
RKO. I would sit in the booth and watch how he patiently explained geranum
diseases to old ladies from Littleton (They  always seemed to be from
Littleton).  He would make sure they understood,  even when it messed up
the clock.

He gave me advice once, when the twins, now 25, were tearing up the front
lawn playing baseball and soccer. Worn spots would fill with crabgrass.  He
suggested creeping fescue because its deep roots meant it would be durable
and keep nuisance grasses from taking over

10 years later, the grass took on that crabgrass light green,  so I tracked
him down at a personal appearance  in Methuen and asked what I was doing
wrong.  "It's basically a hybrid grass breeded with a deep rooted Florida
weed," he said. "We found out later, that strain just wants to go back to
being a weed." He did have a solution, as always.

Then there was the morning he was all excited when told that Joe Morgan
would be calling in for some good tomato talk.  Paul thought it was an
interview, but Walpole Joe wanted some advice on growing his own tomatoes.
It was ships passing in the night until they each eventually managed to
figure it out.