She Stayed to Plant the Flowers
- Diana Pierce
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
What Belinda Jensen Says Gardeners Get Wrong Every Year
By Diana Pierce | April 29, 2026
Some people do their job. Belinda Jensen stays to plant the flowers.
You may know the resume: KARE 11 intern in 1989, the same station she had dreamed about since interviewing meteorologist Paul Douglas for a 10th grade term paper. Full-time in 1993. Chief meteorologist in 2005. And on Saturday, May 2nd, she will deliver her final forecast from the KARE 11 Backyard, after 33 remarkable years.
But here is the story that tells you everything.
Colleague Randy Shaver once asked Belinda for planting advice for a corner of his house. She recommended what to buy, they shot a “Grow With KARE” segment together, and when the photographer left, Belinda stayed. And planted the rest of the flowers herself. Randy told her she did not have to. She insisted. Twenty minutes later, he checked on her. She was still out there, perfecting every last detail.
“That’s Bel,” Randy said. “Everything she does in life is done with her best effort and with her whole heart.”
I worked alongside her for 23 of those years. When she sat down with me for this interview, I already knew what I would find.
On leaving after 36 years
It was not a single moment, she says. It was a slow and honest reckoning.
Diana: So when you say it’s time to retire, how did this all come to you?
Belinda: You did it for decades. You understand that it’s a phenomenal place to work. But at the same time, the schedule wears on you. Being out of the house every single night wears on you. I’ve been doing this for 36 years, 33 years at KARE-TV and three in Salt Lake City. My husband and I are empty nesters now. I’m just looking for a new chapter, a new way of living. This is the only way I’ve known for so long.
Her news director calls what she built at KARE 11 “a deeply shared Minnesota experience.” Colleague and dear friend Julie Nelson, who worked alongside Belinda for 22 years, puts it simply: “Belinda is so beloved because she is so genuine, in her interests, in her kindness, and in her humor. Many a night the news is heavy, but she always finds a way to make us smile.” A former general manager once called Belinda “sunshine personified.” Julie’s response? “I agree, 100 percent.”
On Grow With KARE, and Bobby Jensen
By the way, a quick clarification- Bobby Jensen, no relation, has been her Grow With KARE partner for decades.
Diana: How did Grow With KARE come about?
Belinda: We started arguing right away. So I knew it was going to be a good relationship.
For years, Belinda and Bobby Jensen produced two segments every other Thursday, 52 weeks a year, in a state that feels frozen for half of them. The Grow With KARE Facebook group now has 98,000 members. Photographer Deb Lyngdal worked on many of those shoots and asked me to bring up the bloopers.
Diana: Deb wanted me to ask about the Belinda and Bobby bloopers.
Belinda: Bobby is really good on the first take. But if the first take runs too long and I ask him to do it again, it just starts to go downhill from there.
Belinda laughs easily when she talks about those years. She is quick to credit Bobby as the teacher, and herself as the stand-in for the viewer, asking the question everyone at home was already thinking. That is exactly why it worked.
Diana: You always made us feel that gardening was approachable, like if you could do it, anyone could?
Belinda: I was learning along the way, for sure. I always say that gardening, at first you learn about some annuals, then maybe some perennials, then herbs, then maybe you’ll be a vegetable gardener. Bobby has been the teacher. And I’ve been the one asking the typical question of the viewer. I think that’s why it’s been very popular.
Belinda’s Tip: The Tomato Patience Game in Late Summer
“A lot of the warming that has occurred is really in the overnight hours. Until you get a cold night in the fall, those tomatoes won’t ripen. People get anxious and want to grab them all, but wait. Mid-September, late September, those colder nights will eventually turn them red. And then you’ll have a plethora all at once.”
On weather, gardening, and not jumping the gun
Diana: What do you think we consistently underestimate when it comes to weather and gardening?
Belinda: People get a little too anxious. As soon as those nice days come in late April, and I’ve been one of those people, you go out and get everything. And then you play the game of covering and moving it indoors. We still can have frost all the way into May. Those early spring frosts have gotten me before. They’ll cost you, that’s for sure.
She says this with the warmth of someone who has made that mistake herself. That has always been her gift, making science feel like something you can hold in your hands.
On what she hopes people carry with them
Diana: When people think of you in the future, what do you hope they’ll carry with them?
Belinda: I hope people walk away and say, I didn’t know that about the solstice, or I didn’t realize that’s the kind of cloud that is. I hope everyone can think of themselves as the scientist in the room. That’s what I’ve been able to do for so long, make science down to earth so that everyone can just be a little smarter with their morning coffee.
It is the same spirit that shaped her Bel the Weather Girl children’s book series, six books born from 36 years of school visits and those light-bulb moments in second-grade classrooms, when a child finally understood how a raindrop becomes a hailstone.
Jane Helmke, who served as Belinda’s news director for many years, describes the series as “an outpouring of that passion on every page.”
On what comes next
She is moving into her next chapter with characteristic enthusiasm. Hosting trips through Defined Destinations, Italy in October. A possible podcast. Monthly Saturday contributor spots at KARE starting in August. More STEM talks. And a new garden on the acre of land she just moved to.
Diana: What does a perfect day look like in your next chapter?
Belinda: I’m really looking forward to being home at night. That hasn’t been something I’ve done for a very long time. I think the schedule shift will be very good for me, for sure.
I was there the first time Belinda sat in for Paul Douglas. She said she was nervous. I told her she would do a great job. She told me years later those words meant a lot.
I’m glad I said them. And I’m glad she stayed to plant the flowers.
Belinda Jensen’s final forecast airs Saturday, May 2nd
Diana
© 2026 Diana Pierce