“Growing A Greener World” TV Shoot In My Front Lawn – A Modern Green Victory Garden

Today was the big day; Joe Lamp’l and his hardworking Growing A Greener World TV  television crew came to my yard to feature my front lawn vegetable garden. Joe wanted his feature to be about educating people on “Victory Gardening” in a more modern way. Joe and the whole crew were on-site at my front lawn vegetable garden and we had a fantastic time working together. Joe, working as producer and host, puts everyone at ease, and his staff is kind and professional.

Here’s how the shoot went – first, I invited some garden blogger friends over to give me a hand with the day. Here they are in the photo to the right (left to right) Brenda Haas of BG Garden blog, Louise Hartwig, (supportive Mom of Kylee Hartwig Baumle), Shawna Coronado (that’s me), and Kylee Hartwig Baumle of Our Little Acre blog came the evening before. We celebrated with dinner, margaritas, and wonderful conversation. We all had a great time!

Brenda was the photographer for the day, taking over 800 photos – wow! Kylee had her camera out snapping away as well, and Kylee and Louise helped with organizing lunch for the television crew. Each was invaluable and offered incredibly appreciated assistance for the day – and all of them drove from Ohio just to help out! Thank you, ladies!

Joe called me later the day before the shoot letting me know that their episode on the rooftop of the Daley Center had simply been a delight (yes I AM being sarcastic) with torrential downpours and sticky-humid Chicago heat – it delayed the shooting time tremendously, so he and his crew would be several hours late in the morning. I began sweating profusely worried about timing but crossed my fingers.

By the next day, the time for his visit had been extended beyond 10 AM. Lots of people had arrived to watch the show being taped. We all waited patiently with fingers crossed hoping for the best. At 11:00 AM Joe and his team pulled into my driveway and a small cheer escaped the crowd. With no further delay, I ran out the door and gave Joe and his cameramen a five-minute tour of my sustainable garden so they would be able to build the best shots in a short time — turns out they all had to be at Midway Airport by 2:00 PM. This meant we had to be done in less than two hours for them to make it on time.

Let me explain my garden; essentially it is the garden that ate Warrenville, Illinois. It is on a cul-de-sac in a very common suburban neighborhood in the suburbs of Chicago. However, my intense gardening addiction has now taken over my life and my neighbor’s properties. No kidding. It is a LOT of gardens to cover with a television show taping in less than two hours. Therefore, the executive decision was made to focus only on the front vegetable garden which I am using to help people understand more about how to feed the hungry.

We surveyed the area discussing what would work best, then jumped in taping the show. Above you see Joe and I discuss how to address the vegetable garden details in the film. At the right you see his crew filming us sitting on the front porch in front of the rainwater cistern system. His crew is trying to push light onto our faces with a portable shiny mirror so the camera can see us better while we are having our conversation.

My neighborhood is relatively quiet, but of course, today during our shoot several extremely loud trains went by on the local train line, a dozen airplanes went overhead, loud trucks drove by, the mailman drove by, the UPS man drove by, and cars drove by. Surprisingly there were no marching bands going by. Below you see Joe and me cracking up while we are waiting for one of the trains to go by.

And guess what? We finished in under two hours with smiles on our faces. We all had a fantastic time during the shoot. My helpers were absolutely fabulous. Thank you Brenda for all the amazingly well-taken photos and to Kylee and Louise for helping with lunch. Most of all thank you to all the wonderful team from Growing A Greener World TV, both on-site and off, for helping make my debut on your television show such a terrific experience. It was fun – can I do it again please?::wink::

**All photos on this page are credited to Brenda Haas of BG Garden Photography.