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Replay of Gardening CrossFit Hall of Famer Joe The Mason started out as a listener who connected with me on Facebook and I was able to convince to come on as a guest! He shares some amazing knowledge for a new gardener, but because he is both inquisitive AND a man of action he has taken some great advice from the experts at the local University of Maine, applied them with gusto and is quickly becoming a master gardener in his own right! Tell us a little about yourself. I just turned 50 years old this year, I live in Orono, Maine, in Eastern Maine. I graduated High School in 1983. I left Orono for the Navy for 4 years, but ended up staying out of state for 24 years. I come back in 2007, back to Orono. I actually live in my grandparent’s house, but will soon be moving into my parents house, which is where I have the garden we will be talking about is. I’m a custodian at the local elementary school, which is the school I went through as a kid. So it’s kinda cool to be back, right back in town. I really like it a lot! I have to give you a huge shout out, as an elementary school teacher I know how VALUABLE you’re job is! None of the school could run without the custodians. It’s good for the kids, it’s good for the teachers and it’s good for everybody! I give you a HUGE thank you and shoutout for doing that! It’s much appreciated! :~)) Really fun to be honest, I don’t get to see the kids too much, because I’m usually there in the evening or when they’re leaving and wave to them in the hall, but they’re usually very full of life and that’s nice to see! Yep lots of good friends who are custodians! Excellent!! You know I like to start the show by asking about your very first gardening experience? The house that I’m moving into, my parents house, when I was a kid my grandfather had this huge garden, it was huge to me as a kid, behind the house. It sits on the embankment of the Penobscot River which is one of the biggest rivers in Maine. Now that I’m older, I like to think of myself now as my grandfather’s  “quality insurance checker” because I loved walking out the back door of the house and picking a cuke or something and rubbing it off on my jeans and eating it! Or pulling a tomato or a carrot or a radish. I didn’t actually help my gradnfather except to make sure they were yummy! That’s what my grandkids do too! My first actual gardening experience I think was probably, and your gonna chuckle, but I lived in Philadelphia for 12 years. I lived in South Philly and they are all row homes so you really don’t have any space behind your house, except maybe a 6×10 spot. In this row home I was in, I had a little brick wall that I built up on my deck that was maybe 2 feet high, maybe 4 feet long.  I went to Lowes, and bought some dirt, it wasn’t organic, now I realize this but I also bought some tomatoes. So I’m growing tomato plants on my back deck in Philly, and I’m growing tomatoes on my 3×6 foot floor deck! But it was great to walk out and pick tomatoes! It was because my grandpa and my parents always grew in that same garden. I’ve been around gardens a lot. I think that will encourage people that do live in an apartment that maybe just a tomato plant will get me going! Or an herb in a pot! Or one of each they make great companion plants! What does organic gardening/earth friendly mean to you? Really not using the pesticides and the poisons! That’s what I’m doing this year, that’s really been my focus. Really you have to respect your food by respecting the soil. I’ve really tried to just live by that since I put my garden in this year. I talked to this old friend of mine from high school Mary Frances Harris on https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/organic-gardener-podcast/70-mary-frances-harris-hopanj/ (episode 71) and she also lives on a river... Support this podcast