By
Jim Weiker
For 23 years, Tom McNutt has taught central Ohioans how to pick, plant and prune their
gardens.
Along the way, he has donned wigs, “interviewed” bumblebees and waded into a fishing pond
dressed as Huck Finn.
As the gardening expert for WCMH-TV (Channel 4), McNutt has served as one of the last quirky
amateurs of central Ohio broadcasting — hired for his expertise in horticulture, not
journalism.
His folksy habits of clowning around, telling corny jokes and wearing costumes mark a throwback
to an earlier era of broadcasting.
On Saturday morning, that era will end when McNutt delivers his final gardening segment for the
station.
He’ll go out on top: His show is No. 1 in its time slot.
McNutt was preparing to retire as chairman of the Franklin County Cooperative Extension Service
at the end of 1988 when Channel 4 officials asked whether he was interested in a regular gardening
segment.
The job he figured he’d do for “a year or two” has made him a central Ohio gardening
institution.
“You need to reach people before you teach them,” said McNutt, 78. “Sometimes, maybe we get
carried away to draw attention.”
Even though he had no broadcasting education, McNutt wasn’t a stranger to the studio: In his
roles as a 4-H agent, cooperative-extension chairman and Franklin County Fair spokesman, he had
been interviewed regularly by news outlets.
In his first few years at Channel 4, he worked from the studio but found the routine
stifling.
“I said, ‘Get me a live truck and let me go out,’ ” he recalled. “The station manager said, ‘I’l
l give you a month to make it work.’ That month never ended.”
McNutt hit his stride at gardens, nurseries and farms, where his down-home delivery fit in.
“Tom really shone when he was out of studio — when he was in his natural element, if you will,”
said Ike Walker, director of digital journalism at Channel 4. “Tom has that everyman quality that I
think people identify with and have identified with for years.”
McNutt’s show soon settled into a pattern: three or four short segments during the station’s
Saturday news show from 8 to 9 a.m. The segments include demonstrations, interviews, tips and
questions from viewers.
He shot his segments in dozens of area locations but tended to return to a handful of favorites:
Cedarbrook Landscaping Garden Center in Shawnee Hills, deMonye’s Greenhouse in Columbus and
Seely’s Landscape Nursery in Hilliard.
“He and I always have a lot of fun together,” said Cedarbrook owner Larry Burchfield, who has
known McNutt since Burchfield was a 14-year-old 4-H’er.
“When we get on TV together, something usually ends up happening.”
In his final segment at Cedarbrook, McNutt wore three wigs, including one in a woman’s hairstyle
and another in an Afro, during skits depicting his past, present and future “ghosts.”
Burchfield and others are quick to add that behind McNutt’s corn-pone silliness lies a thorough
knowledge of horticulture, courtesy of growing up on a farm and earning bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in agriculture from Ohio State University.
“Don’t let him fool you: He knows his stuff,” said Jerry Killilea Sr., owner of deMonye’s. “He
looks like a country boy, but he’s sharper than you think.”
McNutt’s contribution to horticulture has landed him in the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame, the
4-H Ohio Hall of Fame and the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.
Killilea, Burchfield and others have a simple explanation for McNutt’s longevity.
“What you see is what he is; that’s exactly the way he is,” Burchfield said. “There’s nothing
hidden.”
The unvarnished presentation has been gradually replaced by a more polished professionalism.
“In local television, in bygone days, you wanted someone who could talk the talk and communicate
well, of course,” said Tom Wiebell, a veteran Columbus radio and TV broadcaster who has worked with
McNutt.“But you were more interested in someone who had some homeyness about them, that sort of
personality that carries trust — which Tom has.
“He may be, in a sense, the last of an era in the way he works.”
On a few occasions, McNutt’s carefree approach has landed him in hot water at the station — as
when he joked that a female reporter from Indiana was a “Hooter” instead of a Hoosier and when he
accidentally let some cockroaches loose in the studio.
“I think newspeople take themselves too seriously,” he said. “It comes off as phony. People just
want you to be yourself.”
McNutt has done more than 1,000 broadcasts but says two annual shows at his Hilliard home have
long been the most popular: a Christmas segment featuring decorations by Joan, his wife of 54
years; and a spring show in his lush backyard, where he will shoot his final segment.
McNutt had been considering retirement for a few years, but an incident in April hastened his
departure. He was preparing to do a show on recycling when he stumbled on pavement and had to be
rushed to the hospital, forcing him to miss the segment.
Since doctors diagnosed the muscle disease inclusion body myositis 13 years ago, McNutt has
slowly lost strength in his legs. He relied on a cane, then a walker and now a motorized scooter or
a walker on wheels.
“I’m going to ride off into the sunset on my scooter,” he said during the show last weekend in
announcing his departure.
Despite his health problems, McNutt doesn’t intend to settle into an easy chair with his
favorite shows (Buckeye sports and
The Young and the Restless).
He plans to spend more time with his three children and four grandchildren. He also expects to
continue his consulting work and is considering writing another book like his
Tom’s (Green) Thumb.
Longtime central Ohio landscaper Tom Wood, owner of Wood Landscape Services in Hilliard, will
take over for McNutt.
Wood, who at 55 is the age McNutt was when he started the show, has broadcasting experience from
an earlier career making videos and commercials. Still, he doesn’t plan to radically change McNutt’s
formula.
“If you go into a new situation, you always want to follow someone who screwed up,” Wood said. “
Here, I am following someone who’s done it for 23 years and has it down to a science.”
jweiker@dispatch.com
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