Theresa Loe's city homestead includes backyard chickens
A tenth of an acre may not sound like much at first! But after spending time in the home garden of our associate producer, Theresa Loe, this tiny plot proved more than enough for a bountiful edible garden to feed a family four.
This was my first visit to see Theresa’s (or “Tloe’s”) garden to see it firsthand. I’d heard about it, seen pictures, even a video, but nothing could compare to actually being there! For those that don’t know Tloe, she’s one “buttoned-up” cookie. So I shouldn’t have been so surprised to see how edible and beautiful this back (and front) yard oasis was. All too often, the locations for our shoots are not quite what we had hoped when setting up our episodes and selecting locations.
Theresa checks over audio while Carl is... um, I'm not sure what Carl is doing
But in true Tloe fashion, it exceeded any and every expectation I had. Of all people, Theresa knows what qualifies as the appropriate location to carry the show’s theme visually, and shooting in her own backyard, literally, provided her full control to set the stage. This turned out to be a garden of our dreams and we ended up using it as a “set” for several episodes besides this one.
On a related note, I was able to prove once and for all that Tloe is in fact human and not some secret Stepford Wives military project or something. On the day before shooting was scheduled to begin, I sent my camera crew ahead to film background footage for the show. They arrived in Los Angeles with plenty of daylight left and since they were on my dime, I wanted to put them to work.
Filming Theresa and her boys in the backyard
As it happens, I failed to notify Tloe of this, and when Theresa opened her door to two cameramen packed with equipment 24 hours early, she was… shall we say… a little shocked. Her garden may have been ready, but she was not!
The boys appropriately passed the blame on to me and I received the well-deserved admonishment… in the form of numerous emails and text messages about the pain and suffering I was about to experience when my plane landed in Los Angeles.
But it was all in good fun.
Nathan checks out Theresa's muscles. Those are gardening guns, people!
I think.
Being the good sport that she is, Theresa welcomed the boys in and even gave them some coffee and a snack (simultaneously spewing off numerous threatening text messages to me), and that’s just one of the many reasons we all love Theresa so much. Her spunk, attention to detail, and someone who truly walks her talk, is not only an inspiration, but a real gift for all of us that want to learn more about the subjects covered on our series.
Who knows what Theresa did after she sent the boys home that evening, but when I arrived on Monday, and for the rest of the week we filmed there, the garden couldn’t have looked better. Theresa has been “Living Homegrown Fresh” for years, but this gave us a timely opportunity to showcase the concept of city homesteading for a new generation wanting to live off their own land – no matter how small.
The episode was voted by viewers as one of their very favorites, and is certainly one I’ll never forget.
Episode 204: City Homesteading and Preserving the Harvest
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
This backyard has to be the closest I have come across to my own dream space. Very inspiring! I would be so interested in a garden map or even a whole book! There are many books out there on backyard garden/homesteads but I have yet to come across one that discribes something like this. I would love to know what each plant is, why it is grown, the reasons behind each placement choice, what are their needs. How exactly do you tie the chickens, worms, compost, etc together. How exactly do you grow things, like the apple tree mentioned, to fit into small spaces. Do you grow certain plants together because they compliment eachother. What kind of pest control do you use? The hen and chicks plant I saw being grown on the actual roof of the coop was a new idea to me! Basically I would love to learn everything about this backyard because it has to be the most beautiful, well designed space I have yet seen in my search. You seem to have it all figured out and your creation is my inspiration. Thank you!
I would also like to add to my previous comment that, while I know the answers to my questions can be found this website and elsewhere, I was expressing interest in exactly what makes this one space tick. 🙂 thanks again!
I just found this blog in an old issue of Backyard Living and to my delight, I am enjoying all of the information and pictures. I made a commitment to my yard this Spring, and it is a work in progress. Some failures but many successes too. I will be visiting this site every day.
That’s awesome Pat. Love that you found us that way. And thanks for letting us know. And don’t worry about the failures. You can’t be a great gardener, or even good in my opinion without those all-important “learning experiences”.
Thanks Pat! I’m so glad you find the information helpful. We update weekly, so you may want to check back once a week!! We add blog posts, recipes and other resource information each week that tie into the episode of the week. We have several episodes on growing food, farming and seed saving coming up in the next few weeks. I’m sure you will enjoy them!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Theresa
My complements to you all, this was a great post and the Episode was fantastic. Do you all know that Growing a Greener World is having a great effect not only in the US but around the world. Keep up the great work, looking forward to up coming Episode’s.
Have a Wonderful Evening,
John
Thank you John. We appreciate that. That is our hope and dream!
Thanks John. It means a lot to us to get your kind of response of our efforts. We believe (hope) our work is having a great influence but comments like yours affirm it. We really appreciate you taking the time to say so!
All the best,
Joe