Up in the front.

We have some collars growing and some mustards, but I also plan on switching it over with some peppers and some zucchini and squash.

So in the back I planted zucchini and squash kind of close together.

So when it gets to a certain height, I want to dig it up and move it up and move it up.

Oh, wonderful.

This lumber came from Morven Gardens, Morven Farm.

The folks at Morven milled the lumber for us, and then the building trade students here at CATEC assemble the boxes for us.

Oh, I love it when a plan comes together and all the players work together.

Absolutely.

>>Production funding for "Virginia Home Grown" is made possible by: (birds chirping) (bright music) >>Welcome to "Virginia Home Grown."

A cool May has extended our spring plants and vegetables but now warmer temperatures have arrived and it's time to tend the summer garden.

Today we're exploring the work of community gardens and learning the benefits they provide beyond just sharing fresh produce with their neighbors.

But before we get started, I wanna remind you to send in your gardening questions on our website at vpm.org/vhg.

A little later we will visit Cultivate Charlottesville so see how they engage with youth and the community to build a healthy and just food system.

But first, I met Shanna Williams at her garden in North Side, Richmond to learn about the difference one person can make inspiring a neighborhood to eat healthy and grow together.

Let's get going.

>>We have some mustard greens and some collards growing here.

See some of the little bugs eating up a few things.

>>That's okay.

That's a balance kind of thing.

>>Because we do pesticide-free here.

So we want to encourage people to grow pesticide-free.

>>And that's important, so people know that they come here just pick and eat.

>>Exactly.

>>This is interesting with the lettuce.

What do you have double planted here?

>>I have some dinosaur kale in between.

To suppress some of the grass we put some romaine lettuce in.

>>Fantastic.

Help hold those weeds down.

>>Definitely.

>>Yes, and oh, such lush, lush vegetables.

This is beautiful.

>>Thank you.

We need to get some harvesting done shortly though.

>>Absolutely.

This is an amazing garden.

And I'm so excited to share it, but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

So what motivated you to start it?

>>I don't live far away and I've always driven down this street and I saw this overgrown lot and we're right across the street from the Boys & Girls Club.

So I thought to myself, you know what?

I was at an auction, why not purchase it?

And then I thought, oh, I'm not gonna put a house here.

Turn it into a garden and teach people how to grow their own food.

>>That is, that is such a wonderful mission.

>>Thank you.

>>And look, it's grown.

>>It's definitely grown.

We try to grow different methods all the time so people can see how things grow differently.

>>So you bring people in from the community to help, or?

>>We do.

We partner with the Boys & Girls Club, with the food pantry, so help them give them what we harvest.

Give it to the neighbors.

We create planter boxes with the Boys & Girls Club.

And we give it to some of the kids in the neighborhood.

I have a seven year-old who comes by and he asks, 'What you doing?'

And we'll harvest greens and we'll water plants and stuff like that.

And he's learning and I love it.

>>Oh.

And he probably loves it too.

>>Yeah.

And there's a young girl who she comes by and I teach her how to garden and give her plants too.

And it's fun.

>>It's so fun.

Do you get to grow corn or any, you know crops that I think are really like kid-fun to grow?

>>In our first year here, the back section back there we grew probably like two thirds of it was corn.

>>Oh my.

>>And the Boys & Girls Club came over and with their teacher and they ate fresh corn on the cob.

That they asked, could they come back?

And it was so sweet that they enjoyed it.

So this year I'm gonna do a smaller area because last year we did green pumpkins.

They were 40 pounds.

They were huge.

But they took over.

>>Yes.

>>So every year we kind of mix it up and just do some fun stuff.

Another year we grew vertically.

So people saw cantaloupes growing vertically.

>>Up, up, up we go.

>>Exactly.

Watermelons and everything else.

>>You've got great metal supports there.

You know, how do you get these materials?

>>You know, a number of the things that we have, I found them.

Meaning someone might have put them out, like the chairs or the benches here, or just some of the different bricks and we'll bring them in.

I'll find it on the street, I'll pick it up.

But the cattle panels that you see, we'll either cut them in half to create the archway for the beans.

>>Right.

>>You can go and get a cattle panel for what, $20.

And you can simply cut it in half.

And it allows you to do so many things to save yourself space.

>>And it's so strong and sturdy.

>>Definitely.

>>And it lasts forever.

>>Yes.

Because I've used the little netting before and it starts to collapse under the black beans and the black-eyed peas and those things make it a little bit cumbersome and then the twine, you can't get it a loose.

But I'll always, still show people those options.

>>Yes.

But that cattle panel, something strong and sturdy.

>>But if they don't have it (inaudible) Yes.

And then sometimes we'll even do things structured with using bamboo and string.

>>Yeah.

>>Just giving you ideals so you can take those ideals home and use them.

>>Speaking of using, though, I saw in your back your compost pile where you had some, I'll say chips and other organic matter.

Where do you get all of your supplies for that?

Cause this garden is due to beautiful soil.

>>Oh, thank you!

My cousin does feel that, she's like 'it's something in your soil'.

>>(laughs) >>Once again, I might see a tree company and they're cutting down trees and I'll say, Hey, I'm over at such and such, you can dump 'em for free!

And I'll gladly take it.

Or also Henrico has where you can get free chips.

>>Yes.

>>Wood chips.

So I'll go there and I'll pick up some of the free wood chips, but also recently on Craigslist they had horse manure for free.

All I had to do was bring a pitchfork, put my pickup truck, back it up and went to town.

I was thankful, it was mature and it wasn't smelly and everything.

But put the boots on and had fun!

>>Shana, you mentioned you use rain water only but I see a lot of water collection systems around here.

Tell us about them.

>>Well, I drove around the city and what I saw was they had at the different schools, rain collection systems.

And I was thinking, well, we collect a lot of rain water anyway, from our roofs.

>>Right.

>>Why don't you just make small little systems with you know, rain gutters?

And I got some of the different barrels, discounted, found Craigslist, different locations.

>>Wonderful.

>>Because when I first started, oh gosh.

It was the car and five gallon buckets.

Bringing rain water over.

I put a water tote in the front.

A neighbor was going, coming over and putting rainwater and water inside of it for me so I could water things.

>>So sweet!

>>So we've come a long way.

>>You have, but I think it's ingenious.

You've made your own little roofs and you collect your own rainwater off of the little roof.

I love it.

>>And in some of them they'd have nothing on top but they still end up filling up, so I'm thankful.

>>That's amazing.

It's a lot of water that comes out of the sky.

Plus we've got the nitrogen cycle, you know as that rain drop falls down, it's collecting nitrogen on the way.

And people don't remember that from their schooling.

That, all that nitrogen is what greens up everything after that rain.

>>And a neighbor came by yesterday and we were just talking about how that rain water and it just, it vitalizes the plants.

>>Yes.

>>So much better if I had to bring in other water.

>>Absolutely.

>>So city water and put it in.

So I'm so excited to see this cloudy day.

>>Yes.

The rain's coming.

>>I welcome the rain!

>>Me too.

But speaking of rain, I also see some fruit trees in the back and they're tricky to get established just relying on rainwater.

So tell me about the fruit trees.

>>You know what very fortunate, because I put the fruit trees in and like most people know you're supposed to put them in in the fall, or late fall.

So I put them in the December.

>>(laughs) Okay.

>>A lot of times you find fruit trees around and about they're trying to get rid of them in the store.

They don't look the best.

Sometimes that's the best time to get them.

>>Yes it.

>>So just dug holes, buried them in the ground filled it up with water a few times but they got themselves established because we usually have like a wet winter or something.

So I didn't really have to do very much work to them at all.

>>But oh, what a great thing to be able to also show people that you can grow fruit trees in a small space.

>>Yes, and after the first or second year we had an abundance of figs back there.

And I see the little tiny peaches growing I'm excited about, but I'm gonna try to keep them small because it's about my little small friends that come and visit.

Not the squirrels, but the kids.

>>The kids.

>>I want them to be able to not just pick strawberries but reach up and pick some fruit as well.

>>What a great memory.

So what's the next step?

What's your future plans?

>>To continue to grow the farm out, get some more volunteers, get more people in the community to actively come out.

Touch, taste things, you know, and really to try to get them to start growing some stuff.

A woman drove past yesterday and I just want give her a plant or tomato plant.

And we talked about her possibly growing it in a pot at home.

>>Wonderful.

>>So the goal is, give her a tomato plant, start growing it on the window sill.

>>I think that's great.

Get her growing, get her involved.

What a great way to bring the community together.

>>And what I've noticed is as people drive by and they say thank you.

They like seeing it.

A neighbor looks over that sits over there on the corner.

He's just like, I enjoy seeing it.

Every time I walk by every year you're growing something different.

You know, it's like, Hey can I convince you to get some kale?

Can I get you some collards or whatever else?

He's like, I don't like kind of that, but I'm a get- I'm gonna win you over sooner with some grains.

(laughter) >>And that's what it's all about.

>>Exactly.

>>I applaud your success.

>>Thank you so much.

>>Turning a vacant lot into a productive space that benefits the community takes a monumental amount of dedication, and I applaud Williams Farm on their success.

Now, Shana is here with me to talk about homemade plant remedies you can make yourself.

But before we get started, remember to send in your gardening questions on our website at vpm.org/vhg.

Well, Shana you've got quite an array.

You know, usually this table is filled with beautiful flowers and plants, but today, we've got it filled with plants with challenges and even little critters crawling about.

So tell me about what you have here.

>>Well, we wanna talk about natural pesticides.

At our farm, we do a lot of things with just growing pesticide-free.

So you have different plants that might experience a lot of damage from caterpillars.

And we also have a plant here that really got eaten up pretty well by some caterpillars.

So what we wanna do is we want to create some pesticide-free solutions, that we find around our home.

>>Oh, interesting.

>>Yeah, so instead of thinking about, "oh, can I eat or taste these things?"

You know what, I want people to come to my farm, be able to pinch off, taste, eat some lettuce and not be concerned or worry about pests.

>>Exactly.

>>Or any chemicals.

>>Any chemicals.

Well, we've got our caterpillar friend there, and we've got eggs and all sorts of examples here of plants in distress.

So, you know, here, we've got a problem with a beet leaf.

Is there a natural remedy for, you know, with this beautiful, beautiful healthy leaf, versus an infected leaf?

>>Yes.

So really when we have different funguses that start to attack our plants, we can develop certain types of solutions to try to dry out that fungus.

And, or you can also just remove that disease section right there.

So one of the things that I would actually create would be, let me move that over there.

I would create a slip, a simple solution.

So, say for instance we got our caterpillar right there that's starting to eat on some of our plant.

I would take some flour, all purpose flour and I'll also take some baking soda and I'll mix those two together, half and half of the same solution.

And a tiny little container, such as this.

And then what I'll do is I'll just find that and just flake on just a little bit of that solution on there all and dust it all over my plant.

And what happens is that caterpillar will start to dry up.

>>Okay.

Okay, so you kind of desiccate, you draw the water out of the caterpillar, >>Exactly.

>>With the, with the solution.

All natural remedies, just flour and baking soda.

>>Definitely.

And then when we talk about this type of plant and you see some of the leaf damage here, we'll use.

>>On the beet leaf.

>>Yes, on this beet leaf.

I want all of my leafs to look like this, healthy.

>>Beautiful, green, healthy.

>>Definitely.

So when I see a leaf like this, I'll either think I have to remove you, but what can I do to make sure that this leaf won't look like this one?

So I'll create different types of solutions.

And some of those solutions, I'm gonna move our friend away right here.

>>Lets move our poor little friend over here where- >>So we have, we can make solutions using our baking soda that'll help dry out some things.

We also have some regular cooking oil.

>>Okay.

>>We got some dish detergent.

And then we also have hydrogen peroxide solutions.

>>Oh wow.

>>All these things we typically just find around the house.

>>Right in my cabinet.

>>Exactly.

So what I like to do is, I'll create some different solutions just by simply taking a gallon of water.

Put a gallon of water together, and we'll use some, simple, you don't have to get fancy.

This is a tablespoon.

You know what?

This is a tablespoon.

>>Yeah.

>>Whichever one you prefer.

>>Pick what you got.

>>Exactly.

But what I can also simply do is this, let me put that right there.

This is me making my fast solution, cause I've made it enough times.

>>Okay.

>>So what I will do is, I'll take a tablespoon or two tablespoons of dish detergent here and then I'll just squeeze some of that.

Yes.

That is my own estimate.

>>There you go.

One, two, three, four, five.

>>There you go.

And then what I'll do is, I'll take a tablespoon of baking soda.

>>Okay.

>>So, try to get some of this in here.

You know what?

Let's not get fancy because that opening is small.

Let's go to something a little bit smaller.

And I'll just put that in there.

And this, make sure this solution dissolves.

>>Right.

>>And then after that, once again, I'll use my hydrogen peroxide.

And what this does, it also helps to add oxygen but it'll kill a lot of those soft little pests, or tomato flea flies and things like that.

>>Through oxidation.

>>Exactly.

And it'll start to dissolve them almost immediately but it'll help keep my plants healthy.

>>Right.

>>So once again, yeah, perfectly you can measure that out, but I'm measuring, this is my measurements.

Yeah, so what I'll do is I'll put about eight to 10 tablespoons inside in that solution and I'll just shake it up really good.

Make sure everything is dissolved.

>>Yeah.

Make sure that cap is on.

>>Yeah, definitely.

We don't wanna spill that everywhere.

And then I'll just do a nice little shaking, making sure that, especially making sure that the baking soda has been dissolved in it.

And then this large container, I'll just move that out of our way.

I'll put it, if I have a small garden or a small spot, I'll use some simple things like this or what I'll do is to save myself some time, I'll use some of these over the counter press.

You just- >>Simple sprayers.

>>Simple sprayers, exactly.

And if it's a larger area, I'll have a even larger container that I'll use.

>>More of a larger pump action.

>>Exactly.

And most often when you walk through your garden, you're always investigating different things.

You're turning your plants over.

And if you notice you have a lot of larva here.

And then I have other things as I or am constantly growing things and allowing my plants to grow the seed.

I often see that, wait a minute, turning over leaves.

Oh, I got a lot of leaf damage there.

>>Yeah.

And I don't think people can see the eggs right through there.

>>Oh yeah, if you look a little closer, you see a lot of eggs and this plant, basically, it started to die a little bit.

So I wanna make sure that I can still eat that and make it healthy.

So I'll just take some of this spray solution.

Oh, should've opened it up first.

It definitely helps.

I'll just spray that all over my plants.

But please remember, it is so important to test it on one leaf first.

And then wait to find out and to see how your plant responds.

>>That's phytotoxicity, to see how the sun is going to affect the solution that you've made.

>>Definitely.

>>Yes.

>>And then once it works out and you see that, Hey, this is working for me.

Next thing you'll simply do is you'll soak down the whole plant.

>>Right.

>>Because you want to be able to see these types of plants here.

And yeah, you have wonderful strawberries growing but I also have some spot damage there.

So I wanna give that plant a good soaking.

Because I want that plant to be healthy and to have no damage.

>>Nice green, healthy, beautiful leaves.

>>Exactly.

I want nice green, healthy, beautiful leaves.

Out of all of my plants >>I was gonna say, you know, even on the tomato plants we've got here, let me bring it on over.

You know, these plants are, got a lot of hairs on them and such, but you've got the healthy ones, versus a non-healthy.

So, are you spraying the bottom leaves from the bottom, you know, or on the top surface?

>>As I start to walk around and I'll start to look at my tomato plants and I'll say, "wait a minute, there's some damage here."

I'll remove some of that damage.

And what I'll simply do is start to spray.

And a lot of times this one has a different type of spray but you know what?

They tried to get one that has a nice mist and I'll just keep on spraying all of the stems all over my plants.

>>Trying to capture everything.

>>Yes.

And often we have to also look under our plants as well.

Look under those leaves.

And when you see different bugs or tomato beetles and things like that, start to make little holes and diseases in your plants, spray 'em.

>>I think that's great.

Well, Shana, this has been wonderful information and I thank you so much for being on to show us that there's some things in our house that we can make remedies with.

And, but important thing is, is to keep a vigil eye but also to test what you're using first.

>>Definitely, always wanna test it.

>>Well, thank you.

Thank you for coming.

>>Thank you for having me.

It's been a pleasure >>And now we're going to get ready to answer your questions.

But first we have a tip from Amyrose Foll for you to consider as you plant summer crops, polyculture.

(upbeat music) >>So we're past the last frost here in Virginia, and it's time to start putting our seedlings and transplants into the ground here.

We have eggplant we're putting in today and let's see, this guy does not look so happy.

I don't know what happened to him.

Looks like there's a little bit of pest damage here but this is not going to go into our production garden.

We are going to reserve these for our trap crop garden to draw pests away from our desirable plants that we want to have a healthy start and produce the most food over the course of the season.

See, this guy looks good and we're gonna plant it a little bit deeper than it was planted in it's pot.

And let's find another one here.

This guy looks good.

If you notice around me, there are not other egg plants.

In fact, we do that for a reason.

This is polyculture, we've got eggplant, Swiss Chard, we've got some Masuna some royalty purple pod beans that are gonna be Bush beans.

And they all work together in concert.

So these guys are going to be the first things to bolt when it starts to get warmer out.

So the eggplant will grow up tall, shade them out a little bit and help keep the temperature down and keep them from bolting.

We've got some beans here, these are Bush beans so they won't try to climb up the egg plants, but they will fix the nitrogen in the ground that will help feed the other plants around it throughout the course of the season.

The polyculture also helps to improve your pest issue because just like a person out of buffet is drawn to abundance, the bugs are gonna be drawn to a large quantity of food source.

So if we have all of these different mixed up plants, they're going to have a little bit of a better chance for survival throughout the course of the season without being damaged or damaging your harvest output.

Now, I said that I'm gonna plant this guy in a different garden for a trap crop.

Our trap crop garden is going to be farther away with the plants, more closely clumped together.

And the pests will flock to this, the disease will flock to this because they're not as resistant, it's not a healthy plant.

A couple of the plants that we use for trap crops are Blue Hubbard and the yellow cook neck squash that everyone loves summer squash.

Those are the delicacy of the squash board beetle that are the bane of a lot of gardener's existence.

So, I encourage you to try polyculture, just give them a little space to grow.

It's beautiful and it's much more beneficial than just doing everything in straight rows.

And it's great for adding interest and variety in your garden so that you can have a wonderful myriad of things that you're pulling out to feed yourself over the summer.

>>And Amyrose now joins us in the studio to help answer your gardening questions.

Welcome Amyrose.

>>Thank you.

>>Yes.

On Facebook right now, the rest of the team are answering questions too so please send them in via Facebook or through our website.

We always enjoy hearing from you.

So Amyrose, what do we have here?

>>So, first we have a question for you, Susan from North Chesterfield wrote in, last year a squash vine borer damaged my yellow squash and zucchini plants so that I got very little harvest.

What can I do to proactively prevent that and help avoid that this year?

>>Well, that same thing happened to me.

And one of the things that I always end up having to do is make sure that I'm constantly checking.

And if I have the net over and put a net over them, do that because I want to make sure that that moth is not laying any eggs and make sure that one of the things that I actually did was I took some foil or Dixie cup and I simply put it around the stem, cover it up so it can't lay on that stem around there.

>>Oh my goodness.

That's a great idea.

>>Take some simple foil, but also constantly keep an eye out and if you happen to see a vine borer or a hole, take a small needle, go in there and dig it out and it's okay because your zucchini and your squash plants they're so strong that even if you cut a small hole or opening in the stem and you take out that, basically that little bug that's infestating all your plants, cover that up with some good soil.

Guess what's going to happen?

Your plant is still going to live and it's still going to give you plenty of fruit.

>>The magic totipotency of plant cells.

That is ingenious.

I would never have thought about that.

>>I love the barrier that you're putting around the stem but I have a question, you asked about the cover, when do you put the cover on?

When you plant the seeds?

At what point?

>>Actually, you know when the plant starts growing up and I often think about it, think about it from this standpoint, once my plant starts to get anywhere between a foot to two feet tall, even between that foot and a half, think about giving it a cover.

>>Yeah.

>>Start protecting it.

But then you also have to realize, I got to cover it up.

I got to uncover it from time to time because you also have blossoms that have to get pollinated.

>>Oh, that's a good point.

>>But at the same time it is always important to be very vigilant of your plants.

You see something that looks suspicious make sure you get out there and keep checking them.

(soft laughter) >>You know, I think people don't realize the importance of walking the garden.

I think all of us walk our gardens regularly and it's just so important to walk and look.

>>It is beautiful.

Healing ground to be out there every day.

(agreeable laughter) >>Yes.

>>You have a fan that has a special question for you.

>>Okay.

>>So, Jenny from Richmond wrote in, how do you keep your larger critters from eating your produce?

How large is your vacant lot garden?

I love it.

>>Okay, so we are about a quarter of an acre and we used to have deer that lived in the back.

>>In Richmond?

>>Yes.

It was amazing because we had some albino deer and it was amazing to walk in the garden early in the morning and see deer eating, and they thought that this was theirs.

So I took plenty of pictures.

And then I had to say, wait a minute, get away from here.

But what I did is I made a solution and it was just using peppermint oils and essential oils and put it into a pump and then spraying it around in the garden because they don't like that smell.

>>Oh, have you had any luck with planting mint around there?

>>I do but you know what?

Mint is very invasive.

>>That's true.

>>I'm trying to grow food.

I can't put mint everywhere.

>>That is true.

So, we have another one.

What kind of bugs eat beet leaves.

And that is a writer from Radford, Virginia.

>>What kind of insects have you had on your beets?

>>So, say for instance, it's very difficult for me to start seeing some of those but what I'll have is different types of beetles.

They're starting to go to town on my beets and I'm looking and I'm saying to myself, "Okay, I either have to walk through, pull them off and toss them to the ground or try to get rid of them."

Because right now I really don't want to spray very often because I have more people coming in.

My beets are right next to my strawberries.

>>Yes.

>>Oh yeah.

>>And we're doing strawberry picking right now.

>>Yeah, and those kids are important.

>>Exactly.

>>That's true.

>>So, it's really wise right now to keep an eye out and to try to see if you can just hand pick them.

>>Yes.

And sometimes it's very fun to ask kids to walk by and you see these beetles, this is not a ladybug.

This is the enemy of our garden.

This is harlequin beetle.

So can you take that?

And sometimes the kids really enjoy knowing that there's certain bugs it's okay to kill.

(laughing) >>Oh, when I was a little kid I made a penny a piece smushing those.

(laughing) So, we have another one, Janine.

I have a white spruce tree that is at least 10 years old, but it seems to be suffering and I don't know what to do.

Reddish brown colored branches.

I appreciate any help with this.

>>Well, Janine, it sounds kind of like a nutrient deficiency but I'm going to encourage you to take a segment of that and bring it to your local cooperative extension office and have them take a real close look at it so they can examine and give you the appropriate answer, the right answer.

Plus with some action that you can follow to remedy the situation.

>>Thank you so much.

All right.

We have Susan from Midlothian.

Gardenias took a big hit this winter.

How long should I wait until I prune back to remove the icky out?

>>Oh, let's prune those Gardenias now.

The buds are starting to form and they're really starting to come onto their own.

And I would prune back the damaged part so that you're trying not to eliminate any of that beautiful new growth.

But I would also add a little bit of slow release fertilizer to those plants just to give them that little boost.

It was a hard winter.

>>It was.

All right, I've got Sue from Tappahannock wrote, I have a hydrangea that was planted before we bought the house seven years ago and it's never bloomed.

I have 14 other hydrangeas that I've planted and are doing very well.

What can I possibly do to get this one to bloom?

>>Well, hydrangeas as we know are sometimes tricky.

The first thing is you have to know what type of hydrangea you have.

So, I'm going to guess that this might be our blue blooming our Japanese Hydrangea, hydrangea macrophylla.

And this is a plant that blooms on last year's growth.

And so with those late frost that we've had this year as well as last year, if your plant's in a right spot it has totally eliminated all the blossoms.

Reduce and cut down all the dead wood and weak wood, fertilize it and get it to grow again.

My hydrangeas at home took a beating.

I don't have one blossom of those macrophyllas.

However, our native hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens, look beautiful because they bloom on this year's new growth.

So, you've got to find out what kind of hydrangea, and again, you can always take a photo and send it to us of the leaf, and we'll be able to tell you, or you can bring it to your local cooperative extension agent.

We've got time for just a short one, Amy.

>>All right.

What vegetables are easy for new gardeners to try first?

>>Tomatoes.

Peppers.

Put them in the ground, they do not take very long to grow up.

And lettuce.

Sprinkle the seeds on the surface.

>>That's true.

>>Little bit dust, a little soil on top and before you know it, you have some lettuce.

>>Carrots are fun too.

>>Carrots are a lot of fun.

It's always fun to dig up carrots.

>>I have never had luck with carrots.

One year out of 20.

>>You can always dig a hole and throw a potato in there.

And it's always fun.

>>Yes, true.

Garden scraps.

>>There you go.

>>Well ladies, that's all the time we have right now but we look forward to answering more questions later in the show.

Thanks for being with us tonight, Shana.

>>Thank you, Shana.

>>Thank you.

It was a pleasure.

>>Next up, I met with Richard Morris, Co-Executive Director of Cultivate Charlottesville to learn about the programs they offer in their community.

>>Richard, this is an amazing amount of produce.

How'd it all get here?

>>Well, this garden is, you wouldn't believe it by what's growing here, but it's only about a year old.

We are at the CATEC School.

This is a school that offers career and technical training, and they've been great partners with us in getting this garden up to speed.

We spent the first year building soil, and now as you can see, we've got collards and we've got kale and we've got Swiss chard, a lot of it we're growing out here.

We're gonna have a very bountiful season.

>>I can see, and it's all going for the community, which is just awesome.

So tell me about the program you're involved with.

>>Well, community's the operative word here, because this is truly the result of a community effort, an effort that started almost 20 years ago.

People wanted food grown in their neighborhood.

They wanted access to fresh produce.

And over the years we've had gardens in or adjacent to public and subsidized housing, and this is our newest garden.

>>What a great program to be able to help with the community and to be able to support our community, which we all love where we live and we wanna help our neighbors.

And I can't think of a better way to do so than with a garden.

>>Exactly, and it's also about partnerships too.

We would not be able to do this and manage any of our gardens without our community partners.

Organizations like the CATEC School, they were responsible for a lot of the infrastructure that you see here.

We've got a well, a new fence.

They've been great partners and great supporters.

>>You've got a bountiful spring harvest here, but what are the plans for the summer garden?

>>Well, we've got all of the things that you would expect to find in the summer garden.

We're gonna grow beans, we're gonna grow squash, some melons, maybe some corn coming along.

One of the things we've learned is that residents, for example, love mature collard greens.

That's a big favorite.

Peppers, our hot peppers a favorite as well as well as creasy greens are another favorite >>Mine too.

Well, this sounds wonderful.

You'll have a bountiful harvest for the summer as well, but it is also a garden as a means of getting the community involved.

>>It is, and there's nothing that brings community together the way a garden does.

Kids wanna get their hands in the dirt.

Adults are curious about the food that's growing there.

I found that a lot of older folks have gardening experience in their background, and so it's a way for them to reconnect with the seasons and the soil and with their youth.

We believe that gardens should be more than just green pantries that are the sort of separate zones that produce food, and that food gets distributed.

Nothing wrong with that, but they can be so much more as spaces that are inviting to people.

People feel like they are welcome in those spaces.

I love to see people just come and sit and watch us work.

It's not all about working, but most people, I've noticed that once they get in the garden, you just gotta get your hands in the dirt.

And so they just wanna do it.

>>And so many people have a background in agriculture or have seen a family member gardening, and they're curious and they're kind of concerned or a little trepidatious but this gives 'em an opportunity to get those hands in the dirt and to learn and to do, but also to help others while doing so.

>>Sure.

One question I get from potential volunteers is, do I need to know how to garden, and my response is always, you don't need to know anything.

There's always something for everybody.

And that's what's amazing to see is to see people come into the garden who maybe don't have a lot of skill, but then they're working alongside someone who does and you get to see this cross-pollination.

>>Yeah, I love that.

>>Techniques, and it's just a great learning and growing space, not just for plants but for people.

>>And speaking of learning, it's a great opportunity for kids too.

We're behind a school here and I can't think of a better way to have a garden be teaching about, I wanna say patience but also dedication and the need to be attentive to be able to produce something successfully.

So is there plans for this collaborative effort with the schools and the community garden effort?

>>Sure, sure.

There's an opportunity for us to work with the culinary students here at CATEC.

I had the opportunity to present to the class.

>>Oh, wonderful.

>>Earlier this year, and I'd love to see them out here.

It would be great if we had a garden club, I could see that.

Or just students who are interested in coming out and doing a little bit of volunteer work.

One of the things I think people don't realize is that gardens are places where you can acquire workforce training skills, working together, learning how to show up on time, knowing how to care for something, dealing with being able to assess what needs to be done, but also learning about food and food justice and food systems, and what works in systems and what doesn't and what you can do about it.

>>So this produce, where is it destined to once we get it harvested?

>>So UAC has market days.

They start in June and they run through October, sometimes a little bit into November.

And what we do is we set up, imagine a mini farmer's market.

We set up at different locations, again, adjacent to or in public and subsidized housing spaces and we share that produce then with residents, with the community members.

>>That is wonderful.

That is absolutely wonderful.

It gives people a chance to get truly fresh produce 'cause even what you buy at the grocery store, it's good, but nothing as good as coming directly from a garden.

Do then residents get excited and wanna help participate?

>>Absolutely, and they can participate in different ways.

People can come and work in the gardens or they can help out with the market days.

In the past, UAC had a board of directors and they had a board of advisors which were composed of primarily community members to help direct the the garden and the work in the garden, what was planted and so forth.

So yeah, there are lots of ways that people can contribute.

>>That's phenomenal.

We've been talking a lot about this garden and the role community gardens play in helping to solve the food desert issue, which is prevalent in every community across America.

What's the one point you want to make with this conversation?

>>I think it's really important for people to understand the value of urban agriculture.

We've been separated from our food, where farms are out on the periphery and everything comes through a grocery store or wrapped in a bag or something.

I think it's really valuable, especially for children, and especially for people who may be challenged, they may be food insecure, to be able to access food in an urban space.

So that's super important, but long-term access to urban growing spaces is important too.

It can take two, three, four years to build good soil to grow food.

>>Amen to that.

>>And so urban gardens should not be like mushrooms.

They pop up and then they're gone.

They need to be, the community needs to make a commitment to those gardens so that people have access to them over the long-term.

>>And with that commitment, you get multi-generational participation, and that to me is where the joy of gardening comes through.

>>Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We also have a program, Cultivate Charlottesville, we have a program called City Schoolyard Gardens where we have gardens in eight of Charlottesville's public schools, and it's so rewarding to see children start out as as grade school kids in the gardens and they go through our middle school garden and then they're in the high school garden, and then we they're in the community gardens.

>>Oh, what a great program.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

>>You're welcome.

>>The garden at CATEC is off to a great start, and I can't wait to see it expand and grow to match the support from the community.

Now, Richard is here with us to share some growing tips on potatoes.

But before we begin, I wanna remind you to send in your gardening questions through our website, vpm.org/vhg.

Well, Richard, you've brought quite a small number of things here (chuckles) to talk to us about, but a bountiful basket of sweet potatoes and some jars.

So, talk me through, what do we have here?

>>Sure thing.

I have to say that sweet potatoes are one of my favorite crops.

You just can't go wrong with them.

They have a long shelf life.

Everything I have here is from last year, and they're delicious, of course.

>>Yes, I love them.

>>And there's so many wonderful things that you can do with them.

They can grow in slightly acidic soil, and they can actually help aerate the soil, break up the soil.

>>Yes.

>>So, they're an all-purpose amazing plant.

>>Are these from your garden?

>>These are from my garden.

>>Oh, fun.

>>And one little factoid I like to share with people is that the raised bed that I grew these in is about roughly the size of a elevator, but I was able to produce over 100 pounds of potatoes in such a small space.

And so- >>My!

>>you just can't lose.

>>You can't lose with sweet potatoes.

>>One of the questions that comes up a lot is, where do sweet potatoes come from?

We know they grow in the garden, but what do you start with?

Is it a seed or something?

>>Yeah.

>>You start with what's called a sweet potato slip.

>>Uh-huh.

>>And it's basically a plant, a small plant that has roots growing from it.

But how do we get there?

>>From a potato like that?

>>So, we start with the potato like this.

And this is not something I would put on my dinner table, although this is a beautiful potato.

There's no such thing as ugly fruit or ugly produce, but this potato is perfect for starting potato slips.

So, I start with the potato.

>>Well I have to ask, why is it perfect?

>>It's perfect because of the size.

So for example, this is an amazing potato.

>>That is!

That's sweet potato pie right there.

(Peggy chuckles) >>I have to lower my voice, >>amazing potato.

>>Amazing potato.

(chuckles) >>But this will not work.

And the reason why is we are going to suspend our potato in a jar of water.

So, I've got your standard quart jar, and you see it's kind of a long, skinny shape.

>>Yes.

>>I'm gonna poke a couple of toothpicks in here to suspend it and then put water in the jar.

Maybe a little bit higher here.

And I started... You could start these in like February, >>Right.

>>And just make sure, set it on a window sill.

>>Mm hmm.

Sunny, or?

>>Sunny window sill, so that it's getting some light.

And just keep the water level up 'cause it'll evaporate over time.

So, just keep the water level up.

>>Okay.

>>And then what happens is this amazing thing, you start to see roots grow out of the bottom of the potato.

>>Oh, that is so fun.

>>And if you look closely, you can see- >>At the top.

>>Patato slips.

>>I call these baby slips, baby potato slips that are starting right up here at the top.

>>Oh, they're darling, look at them.

Yes, I see 'em.

Keep 'em still.

>>We can take this, and this might be out on your counter, on your window sill for a couple of months or so, and it will continue to grow and grow, and you'll get something like this.

So, one of the things we can see is that there are a lot more, roots system going here.

>>A lot more roots, yes.

But look at those shoots!

>>Yes, they've really popped out.

And I'd like to let them get a little bit longer.

And then what we do is we can snip off these slips and then in a smaller glass jar, you suspend the slips.

So, they're in water.

We're kind of repeating this process again.

>>Oh I see, with the slips.

>>With the slips.

>>Yes.

>>So, a small little glass jar.

>>What will happen with the slips then is that they will start to put out a roots, a root system.

It'll look a little bit similar to what you're seeing in this jar.

>>Right.

>>And then once those roots are three inches or so long, it's time to take your slips out to the garden- >>Yay.

>>and plant them >>Best part.

Now I have a question.

When you remove the slip, do you remove any of the potato with the slip, or are you just removing the slip from the potato?

>>I'm removing just the slip from the potato.

>>Nice sharp knife.

>>Now, I'll tell you there's a shortcut.

You could take this slip once you take it off the potato and put it directly in the soil.

>>Oh, that's good.

>>And so you'll still get the roots going, but once I figure out something that works, I like to stay with it.

(chuckles) >>Yeah, and I like to have roots on the plants that I put in the garden.

(chuckles) >>Yes.

Yes.

>>So, well, this is grand.

So, then you water it well.

Do you shade them at all to kind of give them a chance to acclimate 'cause they've been inside, or anything to help these cute little slips start to really thrive?

>>I am typically putting slips in the ground from about mid-May through most of June, through like maybe the third week of June.

So, it's gonna be warm enough where I don't have to worry about a freeze or anything like that.

I always wait till after Mother's Day to start planting.

>>Nice warm soil.

>>What I like to do to minimize labor with potatoes is put down ground cover.

So, you know, permeable material, weed barrier.

>>Right.

>>And then poke holes in the weed barrier and plant the slips in those holes, run your irrigation lines.

And it's almost no work at all at that point because you don't have to weed.

>>Yep.

>>And just make sure that they're getting enough water and watch those beautiful sweet potatoes grow.

>>And if you don't have weed barrier, you can put lots of mulch down.

>>You can, you can.

I've used straw and other mulches.

>>Well, Richard, this has been grand.

And you know, so many people wonder, where and how do sweet potatoes basically multiply?

Because we all know with white potatoes, it's all about the eye, but with sweet potatoes, I wanna thank you for demonstrating this.

And thank you for coming on and sharing with us a secret.

So thank you, Richard.

>>You're welcome.

Thank you.

>>And now we're going to get ready to answer your questions, but first we have a tip from Randy Battle on growing vegetables in containers.

(upbeat music) >>Starting your garden can be so much fun, whether you have a large space or a small space.

You can start gardening in containers, and that's what we're gonna do today.

Whether you have small cups, buckets, whatever you have, make it work.

What you wanna do first is put some drainage holes at the bottom and all you do is just take a container, fold it over.

If you have a drill, start drilling.

(drill whirring) And once you put your drainage holes in, you just wanna fill your container with soil.

It's easy, you guys.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to fill your container.

What I do is I take my yard sticks.

I put 'em right in the bucket.

If you have leftover soil bags, put 'em down in there, fill it up with other things and put your soil on top of it.

A lot of your plants don't require a lot of soil, such as your lettuces, your radishes, things like that, but things like potatoes and eggplant, you wanna make sure you fill your bucket up all the way with the soil.

We're gonna use some basic gardening soil or compost.

Whatever you have, make it work.

And then what you want to get is some peat moss.

Mix it all together.

I like to get my hands in the dirt.

A lot of people like to use gloves, I don't.

And some perlite.

This will give your soil some variation, which means some drainage and some breathing room.

Just put you a little bit in there, just like that.

Looks like the soil from the store, right?

But you're making it on your own.

And just mix it all together, just like that.

Take this, pour it right in there like that.

Just like that.

Okay.

And what you wanna do is smooth it around.

You wanna press it, not pack it.

And you're ready to plant your tomato.

So what I'm gonna do is just take my fingers, make a small hole, just like that you guys.

And this is a cherry tomato plant that we started in a simple cup.

We're gonna pour it out and we're just gonna put it right in the middle of our container.

And there you have it.

Once you plant this in the ground like that, give it pressing, not a mashing.

Don't forget to label.

This tomato plant will give you a lot of fruit for your family and friends.

It's a small space.

It's a container.

You can do it.

Live, love, laugh.

grow stuff and eat it.

Okay?

>>It's been great visiting these community gardens and learning.

And as Richard said, they are more than just green pantries.

They're places to bring the community together.

And now, we've got some more questions to answer.

So Richard, we've got one here that's kind of pressing.

And the question is how can people volunteer with Cultivate Charlottesville?

>>Ah, great question.

There's a couple of ways.

We have a volunteer page at our website, but people can also reach out to us via email, which you'll find at the website on the volunteer page and find out what gardens we're gonna be working in and when they can volunteer.

>>That's fantastic.

So you have regular volunteer times?

Or is it when people have the ability to come?

Do you have like set volunteer days?

>>You know, it typically, it has been a little bit of both.

So, we've had regular volunteer times established, but sometimes we get people who are passing by the garden and they wanna know how can I volunteer?

And I've had people when I've been in the garden walk by and then maybe the next week, they'll just come on their own when they know that I'm there.

>>Oh, that's great.

That is great.

Well, we've got another question.

Amy, we've got one, Amyrose, sorry.

We've got one about garlic.

And the question is when is the best time to fertilize garlic and when is really the time to harvest garlic?

>>So you can do two harvests of garlic and you can get those garlic scapes that are really great for seasoning your food and adding the little green garlic into your dishes.

I start working my garlic beds the late summer and fall and then I plant in the fall.

So you can do a spring harvest of garlic.

It'll be much smaller.

Generally, you wanna try to wait and hold out until you get those nice big bulbs in the summertime.

But I will say that while you're waiting for them, if those garlic scapes do start to come up, you wanna clip those off and you can use those for cooking.

They're called green garlic.

They're delicious.

And that will force that energy down into the bulb of the garlic.

>>Oh, that's great.

So you really don't do much fertilizing at all during the season?

>>I don't so much, but also I live-- >>You've got rich soil.

>>I live on a farm and so we've got lots of critters, so yeah, I would make sure that your soil is tested.

>>Yes, so that it makes sure it's nice and rich.

And speaking of fertilizer, Richard, for the sweet potatoes, when do you fertilize, if you fertilize at all, after you've put the slip in the ground and it's growing on?

Do you apply some sort of fertilizer with it or not?

>>I've characteristically made sure that I've added compost, and sometimes I might mix some fertilizer into that before the season starts, so it's just a little bit of boost at the start of the season.

But with sweet potatoes, you can side dress them.

That is to add a little bit of fertilizer along the row, either side of the row of sweet potato plants.

I'd say maybe about three weeks or so after we plant.

>>So they can get settled a little.

>>Yes.

>>Yeah.

And we always wanna use an organic fertilizer or slow release, something that won't damage anything.

So thank you.

Another question is what would you not recommend planting in a community garden?

Do either of you have a thought on what's not best to plant in a community garden?

>>Nothing poisonous.

(all laugh) >>Oh my goodness.

>>It depends on the garden.

It depends on the sort of micro climate, the space.

So yeah, there are a lot of factors that would guide what might not work there.

I like to look at it from a different direction and say what can I grow here?

What is good and safe to grow here where I don't have to struggle, don't fight nature.

That's what has worked for me.

>>That's a good way.

Yes.

>>I was gonna say, I will say I've had lots of volunteers in our farm gardens that are for community.

They do not like it when you have very tiny peppers with a thousand of them on the plant or ground cherries where everyone has to pick the hacksaw.

Not recommended for community garden.

(Peggy and Richard laugh) So much work.

>>It's like I learned don't plant cactus.

(laughs) >>Oh my goodness!

>>Another question we have is what vegetable plants can be the most productive for growing in a small space?

>>Ooh.

>>Tomatoes can be very productive.

>>I was just thinking those cherry tomatoes might be a good one.

>>Sure, sure.

Bucket potatoes, where you're growing them in a bucket.

>>Anything else?

Root crops, anything that you can double harvest or do some companion planting with?

>>My root crop, I actually plant fennel in with my potatoes.

>>Oh!

>>And it works great every year.

>>Keeps the critters alive.

>>And the fennel comes back, too.

>>Oh, yes, it does.

Okay.

A question from Amanda is she wants to try growing some vegetables this summer but she doesn't have a lot of sun in her yard.

So how many hours of sunlight should she be looking for to grow a successful vegetable garden?

>>Ooh, I have big thoughts on that.

Do you have anything good to add?

>>Well, full sun.

My hope is that I always have like about 12 hours of daylight on plants.

But that doesn't mean that you can't still get a harvest.

The plants might not be optimal size.

Like I was growing cabbage at one point and there was a tree casting some shade and where the shade was, they were smaller, but I still got a crop.

>>So Amanda, that's her name?

>>Yeah.

>>Amanda, never fear.

You can turn that yard into a lettuce and spinach factory and you could have an abundance of that.

And beats.

Beats are another, and radishes.

Delicious.

>>All these cool season crops that will be able to survive the summer here.

>>Yes.

>>Yeah.

Plus full sun is six hours and she can really spend a day, hate to say this, but watching to see where that sun falls.

And my trick is I put a tomato plant and a pot out there and if I get fruit, I've got full sun.

>>Oh, that's-- >>It takes a season though but it works, you know?

(laughs) So you can plant other things and then -- >>That's a great idea.

>>throw that tomato plant out there.

And if it succeeds with fruit, you've got full sun.

So anyway.

A question here that we have is, their question is how can they keep pests out of a garden?

Any recommendations on how to reduce?

I'm gonna say reduce because it's impossible to 100%-- >>Yes, it is.

I was about to say that.

Oh man!

>>In my experience, it can take some time to figure out what you can grow where you have minimal pest impact.

If you're growing tomatoes, for example, and you're getting horn worms that are eating the leaves, I discovered that wasps, if you leave the wasps alone, there's a variety of wasps that will then attack the horn worms which saves your tomatoes.

Oh, several wasps.

Yes.

>>Yeah.

>>That's excellent.

The other thing you can do is think about, too, what cultivars of vegetables that you're choosing.

There's an Italian zucchini that is zucchini-like.

It's not truly a zucchini, but it's not susceptible to the bore.

So it's also timing of planting, learning your insect pest cycles and then planting maybe things a little later in the season after the insect pest has kind of done its whole thing and moved on.

Well, we have 30 seconds just one more real quick question.

My question is if you could name one vegetable that you really enjoy planting, besides sweet potatoes, in your gardens, what would it be from each of you?

>>It's peppers for me.

>>Peppers for-- >>Oh, eggplants.

>>Eggplants.

>>Oh, yes.

>>Two plants that need to be set out when it's nice and warm.

Well, thank you.

We're out of time and it's time to move on.

Richard, thank you so much for coming in and sharing.

I wanna thank you for being with us and we appreciate the work you and the staff are doing at Cultivate Charlottesville.

>>You're welcome.

>>Also, I wanna thank Shana for being with us and I'm impressed by you both and the passions you have for the community.

It just inspires us to do more.

And I also wanna remind people to visit our "Virginia Homegrown" Facebook page.

We always enjoy hearing from you and hope you use the site to keep up with gardening trends.

If you're not watching Facebook already, then go ahead and switch over there right after the show to catch Jen Naylor's latest "Eating Fresh" segment.

She's talking about sunflowers.

Thank you, Amyrose and Randy for sharing your knowledge and thank you for watching.

Next month, we'll be investigating water's role in our landscape, how we can control runoff and conserve this important resource.

I look forward to being with you then.

And remember, gardening is for everyone.

We are all growing and learning together.

Happy gardening!

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