Meet Luke Marion: Garden Vlogger

   If you were to happen upon the YouTube channel, MIGardener, and saw the number of videos posted and the mass of followers of the channel, you would probably be surprised to learn that the person responsible for all of it's content is just 20 years old.  At 16, Luke Marion started MIGardener to give advice to other gardeners through weekly video entries.  Four years later, he's never missed an episode.  You'll find episodes on everything from vermiculture (worm farming), composting, saving and starting seeds to aquaponics.  All videos are delivered in a friendly, straight forward manner to anyone willing to watch and listen.  Topics are based on what is happening in his own northern region and on questions his viewers are seeking answers to.

  Luke's garden is located on the east side of Michigan and is both organic and strictly edibles.  He grows only the things he enjoys eating and varieties that give multiple fruit so that he can share with family and friends, things such as tomatoes, zucchini and peppers.   He is self taught, owing his horticultural education to books.  Luke's favorite part of the whole gardening experience is the satisfaction he gets from starting everything from seed.  Watching the tiny seedling emerge and grow and produce something amazing.  "I like to say it is old fashion gardening brought into the 21st century. I like putting a modern twist on my garden to inspire the youth that gardening is for more than just "old people."  His first foray into gardening was caring for the single tomato plant his mother designated as 'his'.  From there the passion grew.  "I look at people like me as the next generation of food production. We need to start learning how to grow our own food or we will meet starvation and poor quality right at the intersection of overpopulation and industrialization." 

  "I see the future of the garden going into the city. As we urbanize and industrialize we are going to eventually run out of good farming land. I also see a reduction in monoculture since that has caused so many problems with peats and depopulation of certain animal species. I lastly think that gardening is going to go from the back yard to the whole yard, and we will be more organic. As a society we were so clueless of what was being fed to us, and we just settled for convenience. But now we are taking more time to prepare meals, look at ingredients, and become aware of what is going into our bodies."

   To anyone looking into starting their own vlog, he offers this advice; always trust yourself first.  No matter how many times someone attempts to tear you down or tell you that you're wrong, trust your gut feeling.  A vlog is a lot like a garden, growing and evolving over time and you get better at it the longer you do it.  " If someone told me what I couldn't film, I would not be where I am today."
Luke's YouTube channel can be found here  https://www.youtube.com/user/MIgardener  or you can find him on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MIgardener