I enjoyed your videos and your site. I am having trouble with getting the sound loud enough.

Very cool, Patti! Real do-it-yourselfer inspiration.

Here are some links:

Indoor Gardening Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

How to Build Raised Beds

All Garden Girl Videos

Sweet! Patti's a member now. Look forward to more videos

Here are a couple more videos. They are hot off the press. I hope you enjoy and sign up for my newsletter at my website as well.

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1368776739
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1368776741

Time to start planning what we're eating this year!

Besos,

Patti
www.gardengirltv.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Sustainable Living

Hi Patti,

Finally got around to watching some of your videos. They're wonderful! I'm looking forward to more!

Anne

Hi Patti,

I enjoy your videos very much!

I was wondering if you have done a video that addresses things like:

-How much property you are working with?

-Costs to get your operation started and cost to keep it running?

-Dealing with city codes?

-How much of your daily life is spent keeping things running smoothly?

-Where do you buy your supplies such as farm animal type feeds and hay in the city?

-Are you able to provide financially for your family?

-Is there someone else bringing in an income while you run the urban farm?

-Are you working outside the home?

These are questions I find myself asking over and over again as I watch your very unique, intersting and infomative lifestyle.

Nice job. Nice professional video
Easy to follow, easy to understand. good job.

On part 2. Cucumbers. It's not recommended to disturbed cuc, squash roots when transplanting. Are you sure about cutting the extra roots?

bumping thread

I got hooked on your videos. It took me a while to see that you were so all-out with your sustainability. I wouldn't have nearly the time to do all that and work, let alone raise my family, but I'm exited you do! Your videos are great! Again, they're addictive. I found myself watching your how-to-build series on chicken tractors. I don't even want chickens and it was facinating. Way to go!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's beds...

Shelvka: Thank you for watching! Let me try to answer as many questions as I can.

My lot is unusually large for the city, but my gardens are designed as seperate "spaces" that could fit the average urban home owner. It is just under 3/4 of an acre.

My costs to get my operation running...well that is a difficult question. Over the ten years I have been working, wow. I don't know. And then when I started video taping my cost went up. It is impossible to seperate the costs of making the video from the actual operation. But it has been a lot. Now keeping it running, that is something I will figure out for next season.

My excuse is that since my lot is zoned commercial/residential, and since I use the garden for my business (GardenGirlTV) then leave me alone.

I have two feed stores I use regularly. One of them will deliver (the hint there is they supply feed to the Police horses, so when they come into the city for them I get a delivery as well). And the other I work my poultry through, but they are farther away.

On weekdays, it is one hour a day, and probably eight hours on the weekends. However with shooting and prep it has been more.

I provide for my family. My husband and I own a film/video production company which has its office on the premise. We work together on that, and I run the New England Film and video festival, and I now work as a televsion host for green television shows.

TOURNESOL: Hey thanks for the good works. My cucs and watemelons don't mind the root treatment they grow incredibly, I always get hit with Bacterial wilt, so it is always a race for me. I HATE WILT!

SINOFIAN: Your pics are very cool! Please draw me plans as nice as yours of my garden! I can't wait to see your garden growing! Thanks for watching the videos.

Please share the vids, and rate and comment them, so other people check them out.

Patti
www.gardengirltv.com
www.farmersalmanac.com

Hello Patti,

Thank you so much for answering my questions. Yes, your city lot is bigger than my lot in the country! I have .67 of an acre but a good portion of my backyard is the septic lines so that puts a big crimp in my gardening area.

I'm glad you aren't in a constant struggle with the city. I think it ironic that you live in the city and can have chickens, I'm in a development in the country and can't!!! Oh well...I'll just live vicariously through you so please keep those vidoes coming. They are greatly appreciated:)

Michelle

Bacterial wilt is also my biggest problem. This year I am going to try row cover and hand pollinate.

Gardengirl72,
I love your videos and your website. I keep looking for gardening videos on youtube, but none of them seem to really answer my questions. I can't wait to watch all of yours!
cristi

Patti, Hi! I love your vids too! Nice work! joytosew, is right.. the Youtube videos out there are lacking. You could definitely increase your exposure by also putting your videos there and drawing a larger audience. Your videos are produced well.. I thought I was missing a new 'green' channel on my satellite TV package and thought your site was to complement the non-existent TV-based channel. lol

I'm jealous for your land also. I live in country in Central Kentucky and my entire lot (w/ house) is only 1/10th of an acre. That's how builders squeeze the most buck out these days and to new homeowners wanting to take advantage of first-home loans and grants there's not much choice. Space is at a premium, so I am always looking for ways to maximize. Looks like you're a master at that. I'm doing what I can though. :)

I'll definitely check back for more vids. Please keep them coming. Thanks

Awesome videos! I watched all of them that I could find on Sunday night and ended up not going to bed that night until 2 in the morning LOL I just love your setup and look forward to seeing more of your videos. We live on 2 acres (which is a pretty small size lot in my area) and after seeing your videos I'm thinking, hey, I have plenty of property and I'm not in the city .... hmmm, I could do that! LOL

Oh, and seeing the rabbits -- I'm thinking awesome poo for the garden and container plants. And the goat and chicken poo is perfect for the compost pile.

And fresh eggs everyday on top of all of that. I can't wait to see more of your videos. I would love to see more pics of your setup on your website too.

Keep up the good work! You've got me hooked!

Judy

Here is a link that might be useful: Ft2Garden.com

Patti,

I'll join the chorus of "wonderful!" as well. I love it when we women can get close with tools and build stuff!

I was thinking that I'd love to make one of those raised beds/boxes for poultry (though I don't have any poultry) or rabbits and just move them around, maybe monthly, leaving the droppings that fall through the bottom grate and then dig it into the soil to compost and make that area rich for growing things. It wouldn't take much, so I guess you'd have to move them around pretty often. With chickens, you could have a bug-eating fertilizer factory setup! Recycling and insect zapper all in one!

Gardengirl, you did brace those shelving units to the wall, right? Otherwise there is always the chance that the unit could tip over and cause injury. If not braced (to wall studs), accidents could happen when children crawl up causing a wall/shelving unit to tip over and fall into the room.
Good luck with your wonderful set-up. Which city are you in? I heard that NYC allows chickens (but not roosters).

Tournesol: The wilt is my enemy. Are you saying if you keep soil from hitting the leaves the wilt doesn't spread? For this season show, I am taking my garden to the next level with a irrigation project. Talk to me! I know about the copper treatment, but it scares me.

Michelle: I don't know much about septic lines, but if they are from your house, and you don't put any nasty chemicals in it, why not put raised beds on top? My uncle, who fought in Vietnam, told me how the rice paddys were fertilized with humanure. So why not? (I could be saying something wrong....)

Cristi:If you go to my library page you can see all the places where my videos are. Including you tube. My videos are free, and are designed to inform, entertain and most importantly inspire. (I have at least two hours of just gardening alone....)

Benj: I do have a you tube channel, check it out, subscribe. You are right, it is all about getting the videos to the audience. That is the key to changing the mindset of the mainstream. And you saying you thouht you missed a new channel, that is so nice of you to say. Thank you, so much, I slave away at this stuff for the audience and I am always trying to look clean and pro!

A tenth of an acre is plenty. At my house I have 20 4x8 raised beds wich is only about 700 square feet. You can do it!

Judy: I am so happy I kept you up all night! That is great! I hope to get you again! I'd kill for two acres, you have a full out plantation with two acres! I hope to get another page up on the website by next week and the next newsletter. I am building a shed this weekend into the ultimate angora rabbit building. My fiber hobby is going a bit crazy.

Anney: You got it. The best part is the rabbits dig and then the chickens till. I only have to move their cages, and let nature do the rest. It is incredible. I grew a one pound six ounce tomato this past summer.

Marquette: Sure, of course, I braced the shelves...no I didn't, but when I put the video on the website I'll be sure to tell the audience to. Oopps. Don't tell anyone. I am in Boston, and in New York hens are legal.

Thank you all, and keep the questions coming.

Besos,

Patti

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Sustainable Living

shellva

About a raised bed over a septic line. The concern is that roots might grow into the pipe joints and cause damage, but you could always put a raised bed over an area where you know the line is deeper (they slant down toward the septic tank) and plant things that don't have deep roots, like lettuce or peas or even strawberries.

The link below is one of my favorite garden learning tools, and it gives comprehensive information on root systems, their spread and their depth at various stages of growth. Maybe it will be helpful.

Root Development in Plants

And here's another one, Root Development in Field Crops.

Almost every garden vegetable you can think of is included in one or the other file.

Patti! I found you on Youtube! Subscribed! Funny how I hadn't found you before with the search on there.

Well the 1/10th of an acre is very small when your house is 2875sq feet and takes up almost the entire yard. :)
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This is the back yard in one direction and the other:
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I didn't realize when I bought this house that the back yard was so small. It wasn't until I installed the fence for my animals to stay that it became clear to me. The wooden deck off the back actually takes up quite a bit of yard and blocks the light from the garden for longer than I would like, but things CAN be grown. :)

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I read 'Square Foot Gardening' and will be trying some of those techniques this year to pack in more veggies. Would you believe I had 24 tomato plants just in the back yard last summer? I may run into the same problem this year too.

I wish my neighbors would add more plants to the neighborhood. I feel like I am all alone out here. They probably think my cattle panel arch trellis is atrocious! :)

Ben you have done wonderful things with such a small space!

Patti- I am avoiding planting over my septic lines for several reasons. I was told by our local septic inspector and by the guy that comes out to pump the system that the weight of raised boxes on the lines is not a good thing. One or two probably wouldn't be a big deal but a few more than that could cause problems. Another reason is like Anney mentioned, certain plant roots can grow into the lines causing expensive problems. I've also read that depending on the soil and the crop, such as root crops, contaminants can be picked up. Supposedly bad things don't move as quickly in heavy clay soil, which is what I have, but I figured why risk it. And lastly, if something were to go wrong with my system, it would kill me to watch them tear through all my hard work to access the lines.

anney, we have a very high water table, our lines are only about 6 inches deep and we are flat as a pancake. If our lines slope any, it's so gradual that one can't even notice.

But on a good note, just had our septic pumped a few months ago. I was told it's one of the best maintained systems he's ever seen. Told me that whatever steps I am taking and not taking to keep a healthy system, I need to keep doing them. Okay, does that bit of info count as TMI? lol

shellva

Well, a septic line buried only 6 inches deep is extremely shallow so I guess you gotta' avoid it!

Ben: You have done an amazing job! I especially love the wire trellis for the vines. Excellent. You have done some really nice work there, simple and elegant. My only request is a small water feature. Can I make a request for your house? Nice.

Shelva: I am a city girl and I don't know nuthin bout no septic systems. But I do know I would want mine to work if I depended on it for my waste water treatment. So do your thing. Do you have room for a greenhouse though? That would be nice. That is my biggest fantasy, greenhouse.

Patti
www.gardngirltv.com
www.farmersalmanac.com

Cucumber wilt is carried by cucumber and squash beettle. Row cover will prevent bugs to get in contact with the plants, (physical barrier).
I plan to keep the cover for the whole season. I will have to hand polinate because the bees won't be able to get into the flowers.