The Early Show

A Life In The Garden

By Ellen Crean

February 28, 2002 / 5:09 PM EST / CBS

Dean Riddle, author of "Out in the Garden: Growing A Beautiful Life," a very personal look at his life with plants, visits The Saturday Early Show. He will demonstrate how to pair plants with containers and how to bring those same plants from inside to outside once the weather gets warmer.

Riddle began life as a fraternal twin on Sept. 18, 1957, in Hendersonville, N.C., complete with two older brothers and two older sisters. When he was 5, the family moved to Greenville, S.C. ("the buckle of the Bible belt") where he grew up.

In his self-written biography, Riddle says, "My parents were conservative Southern Baptists, but not holy-rollers. They minded their own business. Daddy was a self-employed tool and die maker, catering to the textile industry. Mama was a homemaker who also worked for 10 years in a factory, earning extra money to help my father launch his machine shop.

Read an excerpt from "Out in the Garden."

"In school, I excelled in English, history, and social studies, but couldn't care less about math and science," recalls Riddle. His English teacher suggested that he become a writer.

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Buy "Out In The Garden"

"I got interested in plants, and after working briefly in a nursery in Greenville, I studied horticulture for two years in North Carolina. That was followed by a one-year nursery studentship in England, which ended in 1980," he recounts. "For the next 10 years, I moved around the country a great deal, living at various times in Nantucket Island, Atlanta, San Francisco, and New York City, earning my living mainly as a writer. From time to time, I worked as a gardener and never lost interest in horticulture."

He moved to the Catskill Mountains in 1990, partly, he says, because it reminded him of the Blue Ridge Mountains where he was born, and partly because it was only two hours from New York City. He rented the small house where he still lives today. "Soon after," he adds, "I started writing about gardening and getting published in magazines."

He has 14 nephews and nieces, 10 great-nephews and nieces, and, he adds, "lots of good friends. I have no money, no mortgage, no pets, and no boyfriend. I'm dying for a French bulldog and I'm wide open to romance."