Behind the scenes of a TV shoot

December 7, 2009

Alliums, members of the onion family, are beautiful, ball-shaped flowers atop long green stalks. I have always loved growing them for their lovely ornamental value. I have also always dreamed of having an allium border and last Thursday, that dream was actually planted! I felt the perfect place for such a border would be alongside my winding pergola. The existing pergola garden was already densely planted and a new bed would have to be made. Conferring with my garden experts, we decided that it would make a worthy television segment and the crew was scheduled. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and there was a terribly windy storm the entire night before. Weather reports said the storm would last all the next morning and we thought it best to postpone. However, those reports were incorrect and my TV crew scrambled to get to the farm anyway. All the allium bulbs were successfully planted and now I can hardly wait until next spring!

: However, before planting, the new strip of garden needed to be tilled.

: This is actually a really fun thing to do.

: Gary Nardilla – director of photography and Laurie Hepburn – producer – discussing the scenario

: Shaun Kass – head gardener – discussing logistics with his crew

: Gary, Laurie, and Andrea Mason – TV gardener – The sky was very dramatic that morning.

: To make the job a whole lot easier, we rented this nifty little machine called a sod cutter.

: The wheels have major traction.

: I wonder how many times I have spoken into a camera lens?

: Here I am getting briefed.

: As I explained the procedure, Shaun neatly rolled the cut sod.

: Shaun is spreading the compost while I am busy planting. The white is organic bonemeal, which is good for the alliums.

: Sprinkling more bonemeal

: Gary is always careful to capture every step.

: It’s fun to imagine what this will look like in the spring.

: Addressing camera A – Addressing camera B

: Buckets of assorted allium bulbs

: After tilling, the bed was enriched with my beautiful compost, made right here on the farm.

: I’ve been working with CitiCam for many, many years on field pieces.

: Mary Curren – hair and makeup artist – on her way to the greenhouse.

: You can see how nicely this machine cuts, leaving roots intact.

: All of this sod will be used elsewhere on the farm.

: After I finished positioning the alliums in this bed, the garden crew took over the planting. It was then off to the greenhouse to shoot the next segment.