SOMETHING WILD AND NEW
ONE DROP MEADOW. My son the film maker has quit his day job, and following his dream, has begun a series of UTubes about the transformation of his Wellington, New Zealand garden from jungle to paradise. One Drop Meadow.
So grab a cup of coffee and 10 minutes and have a look at this new and pretty funky gardening video. The first show has a lot of content. This is the premiere. Lots of demolition and recovery. It is literally groundbreaking. He has, literally, a lot of ground to cover.
I quite like the way his work evolves from the beginning to the end of this short segment. As his garden gets tamed Sam himself seems to get rangier and wilder. This will be an exciting adventure in both gardening and film making.
Sam is a natural documenter and a passionate gardener. On subsequent clips he will be interviewing experts, gardeners and farmers in New Zealand and we will be following along as he applies this new knowledge to his own sunny hillside terraced garden.
To watch the first of these clips go here.
I will keep you in the loop. I am learning about utube myself but I think you can comment on there too. Sam would love to hear your thoughts and even suggestions for future shows. Or leave comments here for him and he will drop in to visit and answer any of your questions and suggestions when he wakes up on the other side of the world.
In Sam’s words:
“Join me for the first episode of the ‘One Drop Meadow’ saga. We check out the garden for the first time and see what’s under all that heavy undergrowth.
One Drop Meadow is an epic gardening joyride into the unknown. We are trying to transform our hostile overrun backyard into a lush utopia.
Along the way we are going to speak to gardening gurus and experts. We will learn about all the green things and maybe some other colours too. Join us for the adventure!”
A couple of his newly minted social media places. The links are on his utube page. Do I call it a page?
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/oneDropMeadow/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/onedropmeadow/
Please share. And thank you.
Have a great day.
celi
Tuesday 30% Precip. / 0.04 in
Scattered clouds with the possibility of an isolated thunderstorm developing this afternoon. High 89F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Tuesday Night 20% Precip. / 0 in
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60 Comments on “SOMETHING WILD AND NEW”
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thekitchensgarden 
how wonderful and i’m headed to check it out. good for him!
Yes! I loved the shed scene!
Oh my C! He is so you!! From his looks down to wearing his boots with shorts! Loved the video. I am now following him on Facebook.
Many thanks Consue! Gum boots and shorts are the Kiwi uniform
i loved it and am now a follower! here’s to him and thanks for sharing. going to show this my daughter and aussie husband who would love it too.
Drama, action and some Dad-dancing, lol😀 will be following with great interest, that is a big undertaking for 1 person. Laura
Thanks for watching Laura – I calculated how much Dad dancing at the end would be optimum and then x10 😛
Yes it’s a very big undertaking indeed – I’ll need to order a new back
lovely!
Many thanks!
One little comment — it would be good for him to give at least a tiny bit of context on his youtube site. There’s no indication there of where he’s located, apart from a pinterest.nz URL. If I hadn’t read your post, I wouldn’t have had a clue about location. (I could have missed it, of course. I miss a lot in the mornings.)
It’s there later on in the clip, Wellington, New Zealand where Sam gives context about climate and weather.
I love new and wild something s.
YES! Awesome, there is going to be lots more wildness for sure
That garden area is such a mess. What did he do with all the cleared vegetation?
Kia Ora Jim, greetings from New Zealand. It sure is a crazy mess, and only getting worse as I lay waste to all the greenery. I have a massive pile of cleared organic matter and today I start to mulch it. Should be fun, (for at least 10mins). In subsequent episodes I’m going to be learning about composting from a soil scientist.
It reminds me of archeological digs in the jungles of the Yucatan. There are surprises to be found beneath.
We live in a town in the central US in the first state west of Cecilia (Iowa). We use a service that picks up our household compostables each week. It is called Compost Ninja. We put the bucket out on the front porch. The ninja replaces it with a clean one. It has reduced our waste a lot. Later in the year the ninja returns rich dark compost for our garden.
That is awesome Jim! I wish I could find a Ninja here to collect it by the cubic meter!
I think it’s called a YouTube channel rather than a page. And do tell Sam he doesn’t seem to have comments enabled. Best of luck to him, looks like he’s got an awful lot of hard work ahead of him …. I’d love to know where he put all the debris, how many skips did he fill up.
Thanks for the comment cazinatutu – I’ll check out the comments glitch. Yes A LOT of hard work – especially when I start moving the terraces around. The organic matter is all in a big pile ready for mulching (starting today). All the rubbish is in a huge pile at the bottom of the property, will fill at least two large skips.
So fun and such hard work. I’ll bet being with him is entertaining. Anxious to see the end product.
He is certainly fun to be around!
What a lovely video… he’s a natural, he’s got great plans, great energy and great presence. But my favourite part is where he was followed/chased around the garden by the chook in hot pursuit of the worms he was disturbing 🙂
Thank you Kate for the kind comment, it really means a lot. Yes those chooks are good helpers. Lots of other wild birds have been following me around as I disturb all the worms and bugs. I have a whole support team 🙂
Proud mum alert 🙂
Mum and my wife Jo are the best support crew!
Cool!
Yes!
Ohh what a good tip on suppressing weeds, my daughter and her partner are in the process of trying to tame an overgrown garden. I will have to tell them about the cardboard. Also to watch your sons u tube.
Yeah its a good tip for sure. It breaks down over time so you can leave it there, unlike the tarps. It is a bit tedious removing all the tape and stickers, but worth it. Thanks for watching Janet!
I’m assuming the Utube channel is how he will make his living now? It’s back breaking work but worth it. Fun to watch. Now to get out in my own garden and I my back breaking work . 😉 What a fun way to visit your son and see what’s going on.
Many thanks for watching! Eventually it would be awesome to make a living from doing what I love, we will wait and see. Yes I’ve been having lots of long baths for my back! I can recommend Epsom salts in the bath for sure.
Oh my goodness. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him. His wife must be a good sport. Couldn’t help but think of the neighbors when he was dancing around the property …….: )
Thanks for watching Carla. There is A LOT of work ahead, kind of overwhelming really. With some good music on my headphones I will push through. My wife is amazing, she is so supportive and I wouldn’t be doing this crazy idea without her. Dance like no-ones watching right? 😛
I look forward to some time to watch his film. Good for him to follow his passion and educate others, I wish him great success, knowing how it is not easy with a family to support.
Thank you most kindly for the support – yes it’s a bit of a crazy risk to leave a well paid office job to chase this dream. I’m very lucky to have an amazing wife!
fabulous!
Thanks Kathe! Greetings from NZ where the sun has just come up and its looking like a good day to get into the garden.
Wonderful for him, Ceci! How LONG has that area been unattended? I was just on my way out to clean out our corrugated tin shed with it’s years and years of discarded dilapidated cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, old brushes, brooms, etc. Every year hub promised to do it, but this year I said I would ‘git ‘er done!’ This documentary gives me courage and fortification. New motto – ‘IF SAM CAN DO IT, I C AN DO IT!’ See ya in the shed! Loved his film!
Thanks for the comment Sunny! When we bought the place the garden had been overrun and completely unattended for at least 20 years. We have satellite photos from the mid 1990s and it was already a jungle. It was previously owned by a lady in her 90s, so she could no longer look after the place. The first couple of years we cleared a 12m (40f) smashed up glasshouse from the top right terrace. We spent many weekends sieving out broken glass from the soil. The shed had been used as a dumping ground for at least 20-30 years. We found some interesting relics in there, will have to put some photos up in instagram. With good music I think you can get through anything, good luck with the shed!
I love watching this! I can’t wait to see what he is going to do with the garden and I shared on my western new source to hopefully get him a few more followers!
Thanks for the comment, and one million thanks for the share! I really appreciate it. I hope you are having a lovely day.
This is wonderful! I’m excited to see the progression. It took me a moment or two to realize that Sam was sitting in a leather chair outside. I thought that was hilarious…just chillin’ with the chili plant.
Glad you liked it Deb! Dragging that old laziboy up to the top of the garden was a stroke of genius! At least I have somewhere to sit now. Luckily its vinyl and has already weathered a couple of years out in the elements – they build those things tough!
So exciting. I’ve saved it to watch for later and followed his Instagram page. Please keep us updated when he posts new videos!
Thanks for watching Charlotte! I’ll put some updates on Instagram today, am going to be getting the mulcher out – what could go wrong right? 😛
It’s called his YouTube channel Celi – and I’m really looking forward to having a gander! (Thanks so much for letting us know: )
Thanks for the comment Deb – hope you like the video.
“Liked” your energy and perseverance. LOVED the dance bit at the end. Looking forward to more! Thanks Sam: )
What a fantastic idea. I love how social media connects us. I have followed One Drop Meadow on Instagram and Facebook and look forward to watching the first youtube clip, and future. I envision it becoming big!
Ok, found 10 minutes to watch with my hubby while we had coffees. Love the clip, Sam and his co-stars. The concept is clever and appealing. Have commented on the YouTube clip and subscribed to One Drop Meadow on YouTube so looking forward to more episodes ♡
I agree – very entertaining
Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic . . . as long as in the long run his fame will rise fast enough to pay the bills! Have already joined him on Instagram and, as soon as time allows, will see the full video and see where I can go on YouTube!! On our side ‘Gardening Australia’ with the great Peter Cundall, quirky Costa Georgiadis, Jane Edmonson et al are teaching and enthusing all of us . . . cannot wait to have a Kiwi do his thing on the other side of the Trench 🙂 ! You must be oh so proud of your son who seems to be taking after his Mom !! As far as Wellington . . . well, seem to be ‘there’ often enough as I am a keen follower of ‘Grand Designs – New Zealand’ which oft finds fabulous builds in the fair city . . . . Yippee . . . .
*big smile* Could not wait . . .have managed to get to YouTube and subscribe already also . . . .
Very proud!! And thank you!
How fun – and what a “lotta” work. I’m smiling here and hope to hear/see/read more about One Drop Meadow.
Fun video and sprinkled with humour too. Looking forward to the next episode.
Wow, what a massive undertaking! But with such interesting spaces to work with. It’s going to be really cool to see it progress and start to take it’s shape. And you can already imagine what an amazing place to hang out it will be, not to mention all the good food. Glad no filmmakers or kitties were harmed during the shed scene! 🙂
I LOVE it and him and you of course. I have shared it and will be an avid follower!!
Hey Celi … a super funky gardening video. Sam has your garden passion. I have followed him on insta 🙂
Oh that is great thank you- another coming out Monday evidently- I am
Looking forward to it!