UWOL 25 'Time to plant a Garden'

[Bill Thesken]

TIme to plant a Garden on Vimeo

Fun little project. Filmed with a GH2, audio with a Zoom H4N.

[Markus Nord]

Bill, good job…

if I could give you some suggestions, try to get the camera down to “eye level” (in this film “leaf level”), but maybe your point was to shot a POV film?
Try to shot some more different shots, close ups, and so on… so you got some sequences of the different plats (like you did with the herbs).

I, personally, didn’t like the ending. It was a good way of getting the “horizon” in to the film, but I don’t think we should clear more land…

Anyway, nice film Bill.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Bill,

Now I know how to get some exotic fruit in my garden... If I only had a garden, haha.
I wish you would provide more details (both close up visuals and in the narration) of the different plants, instead of "a little about many", but all in all, I really enjoyed and learned something new.

[Mike Sims]

Hi Bill. Nice video. I showed it to my sister that teaches children’s classes for the Master Gardeners Program. She loved it. Green thumbs up!

[Geir Inge]

Hi Bill.

This is an excellent film that will do well in school.
Especially for the minor students I guess.
You show a great variety of plants, how to create a garden and what will grow in the future.
It gives a nice perspective to what is to come, providing good associations on an extended horizon.
Thus you have "planted" the theme for this round - good delivered.
Editor, comments are good. Who helps you with the comments?
Agree that a lower camera angle would have done well.
All in all a very good movie, well suited to the theme.

Thank you for sharing.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Mike; yes this is a solid video with a nice story and good use of the theme. Your narrator (daughter?) did a good job.

We plant a lot of our own fruits and vegetables here in Uganda, and it makes a big difference to the environment (insofar as you don't need to buy as many goods that travel a long distance to reach you). We use natural compost and no fertilizers on our garden, so we know that our food is healthy.

Your Jalapeño got my mouth watering; thats the good stuff right there.

You might have the makings of an interesting little web series there? A lot of people are interested in getting started in this field, but there is a lot of misinformation about how to go about it.

[Bill Thesken]

Thanks for the great comments! Web series Simon? Well, I've been learning by trial and error
for the past 20 years with a backyard garden, and really get a kick out of growing vegetables and fruit and giving away to friends and family. It keeps me 'grounded'... There's always something new to learn. I've been expanding and digging a little bit of a rocky field for the past couple of years and I sometimes wistfully wonder how many thousands of years it would take to dig to the horizon with just one shovel. Not to pave with asphalt, but to plant a giant garden full of food. I wish I could take the video back and make it a little longer, and more precise in some aspects.
I was in a hurry and thought I'd make it cute with a kids voice telling her Dad how to manage the garden and keep going to the horizon. But there is a serious part that I did not touch upon in this film.
For example, in this garden:
There are about 20 Jalapeno plants that are over a year old and have produced more than a thousand peppers. The green onions are over 5 years old, you just cut them at the base and they grow back within 10 days. Cilantro and basil and tomatoes and bananas grow like weeds with a little water and care.
You can grow a lot of food in a small area. But a lot of the population has left the land behind, and have never broken the soil to plant a seed. They go to the magic store, or the magic refrigerator for their food, and they are missing out on a huge part of life. Nature is alive in a garden, and it helps you to live in more ways than by chowing down. Just being around it and watching it grow is amazing.

[Bob Thieda]

Bill that was nice!
My wife has always had a garden during the 20+ years we've been together, so I enjoyed it greatly. I especially liked the close ups of the various fruits and vegetables.

I would have liked to heard more of the climate limitations of the plants you had in the video. Some of them we grow up here in the Midwest, but I am sure others wouldn't work out.
I kept waiting to see someone's face, but never did. I don't know if that is good or bad, though.

Nice tip on growing squash on a rock pile. I didn't know that one, (although my wife probably does).

Again, thanks!

[Oliver Pahlow]

Bill,

Nicely done. Now I know what to do if I should ever have a pile of rocks on my balcony...:)
I live on the second floor. Nice shots and a clever ending. Thanks Bill.

[Finn-Erik Faale]

Bill,
It was a good idea using a kid for the narrating.
I do not desire the global heating, but I would like to have your vegetables in my garden.
Thanks for showing us.
It seems like you have wealthy possibilities for enlarging the garden.

[Marj Atkins]

Hi Bill
Like Bob you have taken the ‘learning something new’ approach to the theme and came up with an interesting subject although I would say your film is more about vegetable gardening than general gardening.

I learned quite a few tips watching this and who would have guessed it only takes seven months for a papaya to produce fruit. (I can’t grow papaya and banana where I live – too frosty in winter - but I must try and find jalapeno seeds (I wonder if I would be able to grow them here!) I am not so sure I agree with your final statement although I am guessing it was said only to tie your story to the theme.

While you did have one or two low-level shots I agree with Marcus – too many similar shots from above. (Okay , I know, this was a rush job.)

I enjoyed the very clear, young narrating voice. (Glad to see you gave one of the younger generation an opportunity to expand her horizons in the film-making world. Well done young lady - taking after your dad who has one of THE most beautiful narrating voices around here!)

Oh – by the way - you forgot one important ingredient at the beginning – sunshine! :)

[Lorinda Norton]

Bill, I had no idea the ground where you live can be so inhospitable! I'd call you a sod buster (like what they call us here in Idaho) but I didn't notice much in the way of sod--mainly dry dirt and rocks. But it looks like you enjoy it, and you are to be commended for desiring to grow your own food rather than simply going to the magic store.

Thanks for showing me a part of Hawaii I never explored before--the "horizon" under my feet!