"Farmer Fred" Hoffman doles out sound advice and no-manure sense every Sunday to thousands of radio listeners around the Sacramento region.

"All gardening is local," he says, repeating a favorite mantra. "There are microclimates in every yard. That's what makes gardening such an individual experience."

It also adds to its universal appeal, full of wonder, passion and questions.

For three decades, Sacramentans have tuned in to Hoffman for their gardening fix, most recently on Talk 650/KSTE and NewsTalk 1530 KFBK. Hoffman, who serves as producer and host, answers questions with an encyclopedic knowledge of how to grow practically anything – most of it from his experience.

He's not just a radio guy. Hoffman, 58, also carries his gardening knowledge over to television for segments on KVIE's "California Heartland" and other shows.

What his local fans know recently was confirmed with two major honors. The Garden Writers Association named Hoffman the nation's best on-air personality for both radio and TV.

"His radio show is great," says Grass Valley's Dick Tracy, one of the Garden Writers' judges and a former Bee garden writer. "It's compelling listening. … It's really straight-forward information – no glitz or glamour. He gets right to the point. He's a fountain of information."

Tracy, honors chairman of the GWA, has known Hoffman since the 1970s. "Back then, he was Captain Fred, the late-night disc jockey on country station KRAK. He was very, very popular."

But gardening is Hoffman's love.

"He's a dyed-in-the-wool true gardener," Tracy adds. "He's one of those guys if you told him he could either stay gardening or lose an arm, he'd ask: 'Which arm?' "

At home in Herald, Hoffman has created a haven with his wife of 29 years, Jeanne. On 10 acres of pancake-flat hardpan, the couple carved out a chunk of paradise, one square foot at a time.

"What sold our house was the view, even though there was nothing here," recalls Jeanne, who works as an accountant in Stockton. "I looked out the kitchen window, and I could see nothing for miles, but I could imagine everything we could do."

Twenty years later, the couple is still hard at work on their vision. Outside that kitchen window is an inviting pool and patio, bordered by a breathtaking flower garden packed with perennials.

Beyond that is a spacious 2,400-square-foot vegetable garden, scores of fruit trees and towering redwood and eucalyptus windbreaks. Most of the trees were grown from seed or came out of one- gallon cans. The orchard includes such unusual fruits as Coffee Cake persimmons, Dapple Dandy pluots, donut peaches and sweet French dessert apples.

"I'm always experimenting," Hoffman says. "Here, I have room. I try to grow anything that somebody might call up with a question. Then, I can say with authority – 'Yes, I feel your pain.' "

In their division of labor, Fred plants, Jeanne prunes. Adds Jeanne: "We couldn't do this all at once. Each year, we take another section and try to add it to the fold."

Only the hardy make it as a semi-permanent part of the ever-changing landscape.

"At our house, you've got to survive," says Jeanne. "You've got to be able to make it without coddling. We don't have the time."

Among their current easy-care favorites: Santa Barbara daisies, a drought-tolerant groundcover; colorful alstroemerias, which provide nonstop bouquets; Autumn Joy sedum, with blue flowers that turn rust-colored in October; Ringo 2000 pelargonium, a free-flowering geranium; and dinner-plate hibiscus, a herbaceous perennial with gigantic blooms.

"Something is always in bloom," Hoffman says.

Balancing gardening and full-time jobs, the couple estimate that they spend about 20 hours a week tending their property. But it's also Hoffman's laboratory for his job.

Hoffman's current project is removal of 1,500 square feet of lawn, which will likely be turned into more drought-tolerant landscaping.

"I had 5,000 square feet of lawn, so I won't miss it," he says.

Call The Bee's Debbie Arrington, (916) 321-1075.