Inspiring Biography of James Prigioni

James Prigioni is a gardener and a popular YouTuber.

He has more than 1.2M subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni.’

Introduction-

James Prigioni hails from Toms River, New Jersey, United States.

He has a brother; Huff and he works as a teacher.

Inspired by Joel Salatin-

In 2011 while scrolling through Netflix, James stumbled upon ‘Fresh’, a documentary on sustainable agriculture featuring Joel Salatin.

Watching this documentary had a tremendous impact on him and he also got inspired by Joel’s persona and words.

Later James bought many Joel Salatin’s books and started reading them.

The book, ‘You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise’ had a great impact on him and inspired him to start farming right away.

Upon reading this book, James realized that he had to get started to create a difference and understood the importance of scaling up.

Joel not only inspired him to start farming but also inspired him to live a natural life.

Meeting Joel Salatin-

Once James and his brother travelled to Tennessee, as he planned to purchase a property in Tennessee and move there.

On that trip, he also wanted to meet Joel Salatin in Virginia.

So, James and his brother drove up to his farm on the property and did a self-guided tour.

He was very impressed by the beauty, set up and the open space of Joel’s garden.

After the tour, James purchased Joel’s merchandise, ‘Polyface Farm’ from his shop and while walking out, he chanced upon Joel Salatin.

He spoke with him for ten minutes and explained his plans of moving to Tennessee and growing a permaculture garden.

But Joel inspired James to grow the garden in his suburban backyard in New Jersey itself as he believed that there were already many farmers in Tennessee and New Jersey was a good market too.

Joel convinced him that the farmer matters more than the farm location.

Starting gardening in backyard-

In 2012, James’s backyard in New Jersey was full with grass and he converted this into his first garden.

He started with a couple of annuals in between his fruit trees and eventually expanded his backyard into a permaculture food paradise ripe with fruit and vegetable trees.

In 2013, James laid down wood chips and started planting perennials starting with grapevine.

A few years later, he added a greenhouse to his garden which helped him with seeds and provided him with a nursery.

Over the years, James continued expanding his garden by adding more perennials.

His whole property is about a third of an acre and grows his garden in one-third of his property.

James also uses raised beds.

An interesting fact- Mark Valencia, a popular Australian gardener and YouTuber, also does raised-bed gardening.

Mimicking a natural forest-

James grew his food forest (garden) by using a thick wood chip mulch.

He was inspired to grow a food forest garden upon observing that Geoff Lawton, Paul Gautschi and Bill Mollison have been successfully gardening in this way for many years.

Also, the design and concept of a food forest garden is rooted in mimicking a productive natural forest where the organic matter and mulch dropping down supports the forest.

James doesn’t use pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth hormones, antibiotics, sprays and fertilizers in his garden.

He hates growing plants by using harmful chemicals and doesn’t like others to control his food and this is one of his inspirations behind growing his own food.

In addition to fruits and vegetables, James also grows flower plants like Echinaceas, California Poppies, Zinnias, etc.

Initially, when he started gardening, people didn’t approve of him as they opined that he was just wasting his time growing his own food instead of buying the food from the store and some people also didn’t approve of him for the food forest garden method but he persisted.

On the occasions where James grows more fruits and vegetables than he could consume or preserve, he donates them to people as he believes that the amazing taste of his produce would inspire them to grow their own garden.

He is also inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka.

The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni-

James started his YouTube channel by the name ‘The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni’ on 14 December 2012.

On 2 March 2013, he published the first video on his channel titled ‘First Garden update, permaculture, Hugelkultur’.

James started documenting all his gardening journey on his YouTube channel.

As of November 2023, he has 1.24M subscribers on his YouTube channel, 188K followers on his Facebook page and 112K followers on Instagram.

James earns from a variety of sources like advertisements on his YouTube videos, YouTube memberships, selling merchandise and affiliate marketing.

He hasn’t revealed his net worth.

He also has a website.

Currently, he doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.

James loves Asian pears and apples and peaches are his favourite fruit trees.

He loves reading books, and his pet dog, Tuck, loves munching the fresh fruits and vegetables in his garden.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of James Prigioni?

Share with me in the comment section below.