TV land their own backyard

Andrew Edwards

COSTA MESA -- Video was rolling as Sara Breese and landscape gardener

Greg Rubin stood over Breese’s rosebush in her Monroe Way backyard

Friday.

After the camera crew waited for the wind to die down, Rubin asked

Breese if she wanted to preserve the more than 70-year-old rosebush.

“Of course I do, that was my nonna’s, my great-grandmother’s,”

Breese replied.

Her line delivered, Breese walked out of the shot and Rubin got to

work with a shovel, starting to dig the decades-old plant from the

earth. He stopped when enough action had been captured on film.

Breese, her husband Forrest, and their garden are set to be

featured in a new television show that is expected to premier this

August. Dubbed “Backyard Habitat,” the program is slated to be a part

of cable network Animal Planet’s lineup. The footage shot at the

Breese home Thursday and Friday will likely air in September.

“It’s a good learning experience,” Sara Breese said. “There’s a

lot that you learn how a TV show is done. How they do it again and

again and again and it takes a lot of work.”

The show is designed to teach viewers gardening tips that can be

used to attract wildlife to their homes.

One of the show’s co-hosts, David Mizejewski, is a naturalist for

the National Wildlife Federation. Mizejewski said the federation has

promoted the kind of gardening highlighted in the show for 32 years

through its Backyard Wildlife Habitat program. He said just about

anyone with a garden can fix up their backyard to draw butterflies,

birds or other creatures.

“It doesn’t matter where you live, how big of a yard you have, how

much money you have,” Mizejewski said.

The program taped at the Breese’s home was all about the birds and

the bees. Black Phoebe birds, orchard mason bees and western

bumblebees, to be specific. Mizejewski said the program will show how

to build bee shelters, nesting platforms for Black Phoebes and design

a garden to attract the animals. New plants in the Breese’s garden

include toyon and elderberries, which provide nectar for the bees and

berries for the avians.

The Breese’s backyard was already an active garden before camera

crews arrived. Forrest Breese said he and his wife are longtime

gardeners, and their interest in plants was a boost to their

relationship after they met. The couple has two daughters. Sydney,

the older is almost 2; Gianna is 4 months old.

After the birth of Gianna , Forrest Breese said his wife started

selling organic produce from their backyard garden that includes

lettuce, onions, garlic and tomatoes.

Forrest Breese said he was impressed by the gardening plan that

was crafted to attract bees and Black Phoebe birds.

“It’s really cool, though you can’t use ‘cool’ in TV land,”

Forrest Breese said. “It’s an overused word.”

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or andrew.edwards@latimes.com.