It's been a very hectic travel schedule lately and some of that includes coveage of my Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden Challenge. This included another trip to NYC for my next chance to tout the virtues of starting and growing a vegetable garden on the cheap. Much to my happy surprise, this segment was given a whopping six minutes on national television! That's amazing since four minutes is just about the maximum any segment gets, no matter what the topic. The picture above was moments before doing the live segment, from my perspective as we faced the cameras. The interesting thing about this segment was that we did it outside of the studio, right on the corner of Time Square.
So here's my huge THANK YOU to ABC for the wonderful opportunity you're giving your audience to learn more about growing their own food, and especially for giving me the chance to share my story on how to do it on a very limited budget. If any of you reading this have a moment to drop ABC a note to let them know you too appreciate what they've done to promote growing your own food, I'd very much appreciate that and it lets them know we want more stories like that. Here's the link to send an email, and thanks!
This week I'm catching up on the family time and it's been back to preparing the actual garden where I will grow all these plants. The seedlings are coming along nicely but they need a place to grow outside and I still have a lot of work to do there before the garden is ready. Yesterday, I had some people I met on freecycle.com come remove the gravel mulch (from previous owner) that has covered the area I need for my garden. I also had a taker for the plants that I'm removing from there also. The problem is, they had such deep roots, I was unable to remove them. Now it's on to plan "B" for extraction. The only problem is, I don't have a plan "B" yet. In the mean time, you can see video of the outside garden area and my unsuccessful attempts to remove these plants in my next post.
About Joe Lamp'l
Joe Lamp'l is the Host and Executive Producer of the award winning PBS television series Growing A Greener World. Off camera, Joe dedicates his time to promoting sustainability through his popular books, blog, podcast series, and nationally syndicated newspaper columns. Follow Joe on Twitter
Joe, If your comming up to NYC again I’m a little north west of NYC 11/2 hrs , Orange County. I have some 42″ wire fence in fair shape if you want it.
Hey Michael. That’s great and I’m glad you’re on board with sharing ideas, along with seeds and supplies with others. I too will be needing to add a fence or barrier against the neighborhood rabbits but I’m still hopeful I’ll find that through freecycle.org or somewhere else locally for cheap. This coming weekend will be a big one for that.
Thanks for sharing.
JL
Hey Joe,
In the spirt of sharing, although I didn’t send you seeds I did set up a few friends, coworkers, and family with seeds and plants. The hand painted veggie signs are top notch, realy nice. I’m not as fancy a flat rock and a black marker works for cheap. I’m up to $225 for fence and posts for my new garden. I’m looking to my local dpw for mulch and compost.
Great segment Joe. When trying to remove a well anchored camellia, I had to turn to “plan B” which turned out to be a logging chain hooked to the bumper of my Jeep. The plant came up quickly and I was able to salvage it for another area of the yard.
Good segment Joe. You do seem to be creating a buzz with the project. Brilliant use of social networking as well. Even my wife is hooked into following you now…
I do have to question the ‘peat pot are biodegradable’ statement though. That is one of the things about peat – it is already thousands of years old and as degraded as it is going to get already. I’m digging scraps of those Bonny peat pots up intact after several years in the soil, and they laugh at a trip through the compost tumbler.
I remove the entire pot, not just the bottom. I feel the resulting peat collar restricts the roots expansion outward, and its presence creates a discontinuity in the soil which insulates the root ball from the surrounding soil moisture.
I also should mention the quality of your first home grown video was pretty good, certainly better than my cinematic efforts so far.
Excellent ABC segment! I will send them a note begging for more. I bet they get many gardeners wanting more on your project. It is EXACTLY what people are looking for.
Hey Finny. Great to hear from you and thanks to you and John for taking the time to send a note to ABC. Yes, it would be really great to check back on the progress periodically.
JL
Great segment, Joe! Glad you were able to give those NYers some tips on growing in apartments so they can try it, too. Maybe a sunny fire escape?
I’ll shoot off a quick note to ABC, too. I want them to loop back with you at the end so you can tell them how well it worked. All for $25 or less.
Good Morning Joe: Looks like things are progressing very well and you are having good time doing this. Great job !
I did drop ABC a note this morning;
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Good Morning:
Just wanted to complement you on the coverage of Joe Lamp’l and his Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden Challenge. I hope you continue coverage to the completion of this challenge.
Thank You,
John
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Joe I need a ship to address for United Parcel service to deliver a package to you. A little something for the Twenty Five Dollar Victory Garden. You can use the contact me page in my blog to send a private Email.
Have a great Day,
John