As a retirement gift after hosting five years of the "The Victory Garden" on PBS, our producer gave me the only extant VHS copy of Thalassa Cruso's iconic 60s gardening program, "Making Things Grow," transferred before the original reel-to-reel tapes went into the GBH archives, never, seemingly, to emerge again. Thalassa was my childhood hero – the horticultural equivalent, and more, of Julia Child – an indomitable Brit who taught me how to garden. I've treasured this tape ever since I received it, though the sound quality was horrible and the sequences of the three episodes appeared cut up and out of order. As a labor of love, and after overcoming countless formatting difficulties, I've now managed to digitalize and restore these three programs – of the original 56 show series – to accompany my tribute to this great lady in my column at: michaelweishan.com/gardenblog/?p=1189.

In this episode, "Heirlooms from the Supermarket/10-Cent Store", Thalassa shows you how to build up a lasting plant collection from inexpensive purchases at the supermarket or dime store (read: Walmart or Lowes lol!)

So many of you have written to me inquiring about Thalassa – some of you who were so young as to only know her by reputation! – that I'm thrilled to be able to return her to the airwaves, albeit in this small fashion.

I'm sure you'll enjoy watching this gardening force majeure as much as I did forty years ago.

Welcome back, my dear Thalassa.