Narrator> Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Wesley Commons, a full service continuing care retirement community located on more than 150 wooded acres in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Amanda> Well, good evening, and welcome to Making It Grow's "Halloween Show."

I am a caterpillar, also known as Amanda McNulty.

(laughter) And I'm a Clemson Extension Agent.

And I get to come over here and have great fun with Terasa Lott, who is the Midlands District Director.

And also someone who had a very stellar academic career.

Terasa> Well, thank you Amanda.

Yes, I am proud to be a graduate of Coastal Carolina University.

Two times.

"Chants up."

So the Chanticleer is the mascot from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."

<Oh!> So, also a rooster.

And this has become the official kind of symbol.

So it kind of looks like- Amanda> It does.

It's like the "ok" but you kind of flatten it out and put your little rooster comb up So "chants up."

Amanda> Isn't that fun?

Yeah, yeah.

Great, great, great.

Well, we're so glad that you, stayed in South Carolina and that you ended up, after kind of a peripatetic career, right here with us.

Terasa> Me, too.

I ended up just where I was meant to be.

Amanda> Yes, that is true.

We are glad.

Vicky Bertagnolli, aka Agnes Gru from Despicable Me.

And, that's a darling little unicorn.

Vicky> Thank you.

Amanda> He's just precious.

And I think you had to doctor him up a little bit.

Vicky> I did, it was all white whenever I bought it, So I dyed it, like, I... like I often dye my hair and, fixed it up so it looks like it's supposed to.

Amanda> Well, he's fun, yeah.

And you had to make a tongue for him?

Vicky> I did.

Put eyeballs on it too.

Amanda> He didn't have eyeballs?

Vicky> They just look different.

Amanda> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well he's fun.

I'm delighted.

<Thank you.> Okay.

Anyway, you hail from Aiken County but you also do a lot of work for HGIC.

Vicky> I do.

Amanda> And, people have a wonderful time using that resource.

It's just, y'all are a great group up there.

<Thank you.> Most everybody is real friendly.

Vicky> Everybody is really friendly.

Amanda> Well, I don't know.

You kind of top it out sometimes, I think.

Anyway, so Zack Snipes, "Joe Dirt."

And I have to admit, I wasn't real sure who Joe Dirt was, but he likes to mop.

> Yeah, he's a movie character from the early 2000s.

Probably my favorite movie character.

<Okay> And his famous tagline is "Life's a garden, dig it."

Amanda> That is fun.

Well, I'm gonna go home- When I walked in and they were working on you, I didn't know who you were from behind.

I was like, "who is this?"

Zack> I hope my parents recognize me and my kids.

(laughter) Amanda> I hope so, too.

Yeah.

Anyway, and then Carmen Ketron, Linus from "Peanuts."

Everybody knows Linus... "The Great Pumpkin."

> And his, tour de force Waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

Amanda> Yeah, yeah.

So, I'm just sitting here with faith, waiting.

Yeah.

Amanda> And it's that pumpkin time of year, isn't it?

Carmen> It is.

Amanda> You know, and Zack when I first came, a long time ago, we didn't have many cultivars of pumpkins that you could grow across the state, I think.

Has that changed pretty dramatically?

Zack> Yeah, there's a lot of cultivars now, and we're doing a lot of work on, or Clemson is, on looking at different, varieties or cultivars.

And, really disease resistance is is the hardest thing about growing a pumpkin and getting it to market this time of year.

Amanda> Okay, okay.

Well, we have a lot of fun coming up for you, too.

We've got, Carmen took us down to The Grumpy Pumpkin.

I think y'all had a good time down there.

And then my husband, Edward Wimberly carved a pumpkin.

And Edward loved to carve pumpkins.

Anyway, so that's kind of fun, too.

I hope you will think it's fun.

I really do.

So, Terasa, we used to have "Gardens of the Week," but now we have an assemblage.

Terasa> That is right.

We got such a great response from you, our viewers, that we turned our "Gardens of the Week" into a montage or a collection of photos.

So this week we are going along with our Halloween theme.

So let's take a look at your submissions of potentially spooky or Halloween related decor.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Thank you for all your submissions, spooky or not so spooky.

We really love getting to highlight what you're doing in your yards or gardens.

And I encourage you to keep an eye on our Facebook page.

Look for that call for "Gardens of the Week" so you can post your, potential submissions and they may just end up on air.

Amanda> Well, and we do appreciate the people who send those in.

Well, do you think somebody might have a question maybe one of our illustrious panelists can help them with?

Terasa> I am sure that someone has a question.

There never seems to be a shortage.

We're going to start off trying to help Moira in Mount Pleasant, who said, "Is this scale or something else?

Quite a bit of the tree has it.

Does it need to be treated, and if so, how?"

And we do have an accompanying photograph to go along with that question.

Amanda> Goodness.

Whoo.

Well, hard to treat trees sometimes, Vicky.

Vicky> Yeah, especially whenever they're large ones.

And this one was really interesting.

So, when we look at the top of the leaves, we can see that it's got some, some casting to it, and then there's some tissue missing.

And then when we flip it over, the reason why Moira was asking about scale is because she saw these little white cocoons underneath it.

<Yes> And, you're thinking, well, it could be scale.

And then you start zooming in and I could see little worms.

And I was like, "well, what, what is this?"

So I had to do some research.

And oftentimes we'll ask, "what is the species of the tree or the plant?"

Amanda> ...Send a picture, so I can figure it out.

Vicky> That'll give us clues.

And so you start looking up, caterpillars on birch and they get all sorts of caterpillars.

But then you start looking for those- They're not, they're not scale.

In fact, they're cocoons.

And so this particular- Amanda> I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Was it a river birch?

Vicky> It's a... she just said birch.

Amanda> Oh, Birch.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Vicky> So, whenever we're looking it up, I found that there's a native moth it's called a birch skeletonizer.

And it starts off as a leaf miner.

So when I was looking at those pictures, I could see where it was mining the leaf.

So it's in between the layers of the leaf tissue.

And then, whenever it's getting ready to pupate, it will come out of the leaf and spin a little cocoon there, and pupate.

It'll drop to the ground, pupate and then everything starts all over.

So, but if I wasn't able to zoom in on these pictures, I wouldn't have known that it was this really neat little native moth that we have.

And it's a tiny little moth.

I'm talking tee-tiny.

<Teeny-tiny.> But it's a real pretty brown with some white spots.

But the parts that we're going to see is the... removal of the leaf tissue, the skeletonizing.

And then we'll turn that leaf over and see the little cocoons.

And then we know, it's a birch skeletonizer.

Amanda> Had it, had it harmed... had it just eaten the whole tree up or just a little bit.

Vicky> So, she said that the tree doesn't look as pretty as it, as it normally would.

Amanda> Fall is coming.

Vicky> For the most part, this is, if the tree is healthy, it's more of an aesthetic issue.

Amanda> Yeah, just cosmetic.

Vicky> And particularly with trees that have any size, it's often not feasible to treat a large tree.

Zack> And it feeds the birds, you know, all the little caterpillars and things.

Amanda> You have to eat a lot of them, I guess.

(laughter) Vicky> Well, it can be prey for wasps and things like that.

Amanda> I mean, it's, that's the way the natural world works.

Don't you think?

<Yeah> Terasa> Carmen was making the circle life.

<Yeah> Amanda> Yeah.

I think that was nice to learn about.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Alright, Miss Terasa.

Terasa> Let's see what we might pull out of the bag, next.

We have Mario from St.

Helena, who said "What are all these little black balls all around my farm after I tilled the soil and it rained?"

Good question.

Amanda> Goodness gracious.

Zack, I guess you have an answer for us.

Zack> Well, I went and saw Mario on St.

Helena.

Amanda> Did you?

Zack> I did, and I think I figured it out.

So, these little black balls, they look kind of like raisins.

These are nutlets or tubers of the famous nutsedge.

Amanda> Oh, la, la, la, la.

Zack> And so, what had happened was, they had a field, that got cultivated or disc up.

And then we got a bunch of rain the other day.

And so it exposed all these little nutlets, of the nutsedge.

And... these- This is why you don't hand pull a nutsedge.

Because I can pull this plant out, and it leaves these tubers behind, and my problem actually gets worse.

This is just an underground storage unit for the nutsedge.

And farmers... or land managers actually will plant this, and they don't call it nutsedge.

They call it something more appetizing, called chufa.

And so turkey and deer, they really love, this as a forage.

But farmers hate it, in their fields.

Amanda> So, they'll scratch around and find them and feed on them.

Zack> Yeah.

And they're really sweet.

The Native Americans used to, use these and make a flour out of them.

Amanda> Have you tasted them yet?

Zack> I have, and they are really sweet.

Now, that's the yellow nutsedge, which, this time of year it's really easy to tell them apart, but, the, seeds of it are a yellow color.

If you're going to have a nutsedge, yellow is the one you want to have.

It's hard to kill, but it's a lot easier to kill than this one, which I found in the field right beside it.

Which is purple nutsedge.

<Yeah> Purple nutsedge, at least where we are grows a little shorter.

And it's a lot harder to kill.

And the tubers of purple nutsedge are bitter.

And so, no wildlife, doesn't really have any wildlife value.

So, both top three weeds in the world.

Amanda> Come on, in the world?

Zack> They are all across the world.

And they are very persistent once you get them.

But, but yeah, I mean, we think of them as weeds, but wildlife eat them and enjoy them.

And like I said, the Native Americans made a flour out of them.

Amanda> So it's native to lots of places?

<Yes> Yeah.

<Yep> Oh, okay.

Is there something that you could plant instead of the yellow one that might be better?

Zack> For wildlife, yeah, there's lots of options to bring turkey and deer and that sort of thing in.

But if you have it in your garden, it's a really persistent pest.

It's hard to get rid of.

In the winter when soil temperatures cool, it won't be as prevalent, but in the spring and summer and late fall, it's there.

I've seen carpets of nutsedge, so.

Yeah, it's a tough one.

Amanda> Yeah.

Well, I'm sorry that you, that it wasn't something else.

Zack> Yeah.

Well, at least we know what it is, right?

I think Mario needs to turn some turkeys loose in his fields.

Terasa> Mystery solved.

(laughter) Carmen> So just real quick.

What are we, what are home gardeners going to do if we're not pulling it.

Zack> Yeah, so, culturally, you can, cover and smother.

But these, the nutsedge when it grows, it's growing point is very sharp.

And so it can push through any type of like, plastic mulch, usually.

And so you, if you want to cover and smother, you want to make sure you do it with multiple layers of cardboard.

A lot of the farmers I work with, the small farmers, they use, silage tarps, which are traditionally used for silage on, on forage farm or cattle farms.

But they'll put it down and it's thick enough to where it will suppress this and it won't penetrate it.

So... culturally that's what you can do.

Chemically, you know, glyphosate... is okay on it.

You have to spray it a couple times to exhaust all the energy out of this nutlet.

Because you can kill the top part, <Easily> but then usually it's going to come back.

And there are some products that are specific for nutsedge, halosulfuron is the active ingredient in them.

The problem with those is you got to be careful because there's plant back restrictions if you're planting ornamentals or veggies or something, because it'll stunt the next thing you try to plant there.

So, you just got to be careful.

Amanda> Yeah.

So, you might have to wait a year.

<Correct, correct.> It's a horrible thing to have.

Zack> Yeah, it is.

Amanda> And how does it get moved?

Zack> Animals.

You know, if we have a flood or, you know, rain running off, but typically on equipment.

You know, it'll get kind of, you know, these nutlets will get in you know, some soil when you move it from one spot to the other.

And then when you go to till it or plow it or whatever, it just spreads it, propagates it.

Amanda> It's happily in its new home.

<Yep> Aww.

Well, that was nice of you to go down to St.

Helena, but he was probably hoping for a different report.

Zack> Yep, yep.

Amanda> Yeah.

What was he growing down there?

Zack> They're growing, lettuce and broccoli and cauliflower and watermelons and- Yeah, a lot of good stuff.

Amanda> Good for them.

<Yep> Okay.

Well, thank you for telling us about this noxious weed.

Well, professor, what you got?

Terasa> We have a question from Agatha in Gresham who hadn't been having very good luck with flowering plants and she wants to know, "What should I do to get some color in my yard?"

Amanda> Okay.

Hasn't had much luck with flowering plants.

Whatever happened to Azaleas and Camellias?

(laughter) Well, so what do you suggest?

And did you do talk to her and find out what her situation was.

Carmen> I did.

I got to chat with her and, a number of things that are kind of the, the hot topic in the world is foliage forward, shrubs.

So stuff that you don't even have to worry about if they're flowering or not.

They have color on their own.

This is especially important in places that have, sometimes really low light, woodland gardens, stuff like that.

And so one of the big things is you go into a lot of your different bright greens and your purples and it's perfect in fall because it's very fall foliage.

But like a chartreuse, something like a, Sunshine Ligustrum mixed with a, like a Loropetalum.

And that one's... Cerise Loropetalum.

That's going to be your green and purples Amanda> That would pop.

Carmen> Very Halloweenish.

And, you'll start to see that it's a very good standard planting around a lot of, banks and schools and things like that because they are, so reliable.

You just have to always be cutting them.

But other fun things, if you're looking for like reds, dark cherries, you can go into any of your blueberries.

So a lot of the blueberry plants sparkleberries, sparkleberry they have, they're wonderful in woodland gardens, and they have the absolutely most stunning dark red, purplish foliage in the fall.

So, it might be green in the summer and lush, but then you get really good foliage back then, even in a woodland area.

But other good ones that are, a lot of people I've seen people putting in are like Virginia Sweetspire.

That one has a great, it has these beautiful white... Amanda> Inflorescence.

(laughter) Carmen> Just like, plunging inflorescence but then it turns into this gorgeous red in the fall.

So you get multiple seasons of really great, fun stuff.

And then if you, if people weren't looking so much for the, the shrubs, which Agatha was not, we started talking about, especially in low light areas things like coral bells, Heucheras that come in multiple colors beautiful varieties of purples, all the way up to another chartreuse green and everywhere in between.

And those have still, a really good flower.

So, it's a lot of fun.

People that want to branch out, away from, say, just straight flowers for their look, look into really pretty, foliage, that you can do pink muhly grass, also if you were looking into the grasses, you want something a little bit more structurally fun.

Amanda> So did she leave, when you left, did she feel a little, imaginative about things she could add.

Carmen> Yep.

And, we, honestly, just pulling up Home and Garden Information Center so you can see some pictures and get some inspiration and ideas, it makes all the difference.

Because I can rattle off names, but when you start to see them and you get real excited and you're like, "I didn't even know this plant exists," it's like, "ah!"

Amanda> Fun.

Yeah.

I'm so glad you went to see her.

And, gave her a way to brighten her fall.

I think that's grand.

Okay.

And, Carmen, we thank you for going down to The Grumpy Pumpkin.

We can't wait to learn about your visit to see them.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ > Hi, I'm Carmen Ketron with Clemson Extension.

And I'm here today in Darlington, South Carolina on the Kirven Family Farm, here with Mr.

William Kirven.

<Hey> Thank you so much for having us.

So, tell me about your family farm.

> So, you know, we're, a fifth generation family farm, right here.

You know, I'm William, I'm William the Fourth.

You know, my dad, he's William, my brother Caid.

And then my sister-in-law, Mary Shaw she's involved in agriculture and helps out with some stuff around here, too.

Keeps us straight.

And then my wife, she helps a lot with the pumpkins and does all the porch decorations.

Carmen> And we are here today to talk about some pumpkins.

Now, one of the big things is you are usually doing row cropping and you got into pumpkins.

<Yeah> Very nice.

Why did you get into, growing pumpkins?

William> I guess when me and my wife were dating, we just were sitting around talking and we thought it would be cool to grow pumpkins.

And we just started and it kind of grew from there.

And we grew an acre the first year, and we've tried to stick around the five acre mark every year now.

So that's kind of about, what we can handle, you know, comfortably.

Carmen> And you're doing really well at it.

What is some of your secrets to growing pumpkins?

Because it's very hard kind of east of 95.

William> We try to keep it simple.

We plant, we try to plant to a cover crop, no till.

We'll run the rows off and then come back and hand plant, usually, you know, one seed every six feet.

So it keeps our costs down, but also keeps the spacing just right.

We just can't, space them out that far with a mechanical planter.

So we just found, you know, hand planting is the most, you know, effective way to do that.

You know, we'll go there, get them established.

You know, we'll wait about a month in and, you know, put the fertilizer in and then wait a couple more weeks and put the rest, the remainder of our nitrogen and stuff.

The trick around here, you know it's the humidity really, and a lot of disease, just humidity leads to disease.

And we just, we have to do a lot of fungicide sprays.

When they start, they start flowering, we start spraying.

As soon we start seeing the yellow flowers pop up, we'll start spraying fungicides.

So, we'll just kind of spoon feed them right there, at the end.

And then, you know, let nature take its course.

They don't, need a lot of water.

They need some water.

But it's not a very water intensive crop.

So it works out well, you know, a dryland crop we can grow around here.

Carmen> Looking around, I'm not seeing your typical jack-o'-lantern style pumpkins.

I'm seeing lots of colors, lots of shapes, lots of warts.

What's going into the type of pumpkins you're choosing to grow?

William> So we do plant a few jack-o'-lantern types but we found that the first year we grew them, it was the year, you know, 2015, that we had the big flood come through.

We lost a lot of pumpkins, but we grew mostly orange.

But I saw in a magazine, I saw some of these big white ones like you see behind us.

And anyway, that's what everybody wanted.

Nobody really cared about the orange jack-o'-lanterns.

It was all about the, different looking kind.

So I said, well that's, you know- So, once I learned, you know, what the market was, we started growing, you know, different types.

So we just kind of expanded and look and just... you know, anything that looks cool, we'll try it out and see.

We probably have between 45 and 50 varieties we plant.

People like an assortment.

They like one, they like one jack-o'-lantern to carve and then they want to decorate their porch with all the different colored pumpkins.

So that's, that's our market is, you know, people want to decorate.

So that's what we've stuck with.

Carmen> Besides your big white polar bear looking ones, what are a couple of your other favorites that you're growing this year?

William> Well, we've got the Corn Cobs.

That's been a good one.

The yellow ones.

That just looks really cool.

It looks like, actually like a corn cob.

We've got a new one this year called Starfish.

That's really cool looking.

Those have been really popular.

And also the Dutch Fork Pumpkin, is one of my favorites.

We've been growing that for probably four or five years, and it's an, it's an old-timey South Carolina pumpkin, a heirloom, grown up in the Dutch Fork, the Midlands area, you know, between Columbia and Newberry, up that way.

You know, descended from, you know, the pumpkins the Indians used to grow.

They do really well.

They used to grow them when- And you know, with beans and corn and pumpkins all together.

That was, you know, that was the pumpkin they grew.

And I think that's, you know, it's actually got some history to it.

And, I really... enjoy growing that one.

And we actually send a couple bins down to Grow Food in Charleston and they'll, send to chefs all around the area, just to, to use that.

That's a really good, really good pie pumpkin.

And if somebody wants a pie pumpkin, I always give them that one.

So you know, it's got a really good flavor to it.

Carmen> Besides, growing the pumpkins, is there stuff you like to do in the community with them?

William> Yeah.

We... you know, we always try to do festivals, things like that.

But one thing that's real special to us, every year, you know, around this time with my house, we'll do a pumpkin patch.

We'll take, you know, 10 or 12 bins from out here and take, you know, take them to my house in the pecan grove and, just spread them out and we'll, we'll, you know, invite... everybody in the community that wants to come.

But, my church and the... young farmer and rancher group, they sponsor it every year.

And we'll, you know, we'll cook hot dogs and just, you know, donate all the proceeds to The Lord Cares Food Bank.

And that's just, that's something we're real proud of that we do every year.

Just our way of giving back.

Carmen> Mr.

William, thank you so much for having us here.

But I know that The Grumpy Pumpkin is multifaceted.

We got a lot of porch decorating also.

William> Yeah, my wife handles all that.

That's kind of her niche.

She does a really good job with it.

And, that's really added value to our operations.

Carmen> Well, that sounds great.

I look forward to meeting her and seeing one of her porches.

♪ And here we are, at a lovely porch with the wonderful Tamara.

Tamara, thank you so much for having us.

Tamara> Thank y'all for being here.

Carmen> So, I see that we have a blank porch and you're going to decorate it.

Tamara> Yes, we are.

Carmen> Wonderful.

I know that part of The Grumpy Pumpkin's entire plan is you get to go and, decorate for a lot of people throughout the year.

<Yes> Wonderful.

How did that get started?

> Back when we started The Grumpy Pumpkin, I had a retail store in Hartsville, and I brought pumpkins there for my customers.

And one lady couldn't make it before I closed, so I just told her that I would bring them to her.

And by the time I left her house, her porch was decorated.

And there we are.

Carmen> And how long ago was that?

Tamara> 11 years ago.

Carmen> Alright, so we've been doing this for a while.

<Yes> Oh, that's wonderful.

Well, I think, can we watch you do one?

Tamara> Yeah.

Let's get started.

<Wonderful> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Carmen> This is absolutely stunning.

Tamara> Thank you.

Carmen> Great job.

Okay, so for somebody who wanted to start, decorating at home what are some of the design tips that they should think about when they're starting their own porch decoration?

Tamara> Absolutely.

So pumpkins, less is more.

A lot of people don't like to say that, they think more is better.

But when it comes to your porch, less is more.

Do your own style.

Pick your own colors.

I usually start with two, for stairs like this, a porch like this, two big ones in the middle, and maybe a stack.

You know, the three stacks are very popular now.

This one had a flower with it, so I didn't do that one here.

And then I just take the small ones and build around it.

Carmen> Oh, see, now I like that.

Now I know, we're including mums.

Some people are including hay stalk.

<Yes> Do you do anything else kind of funky with some of your autumnal materials?

Tamara> No, no, we do events.

So when it comes to events, I will go and get some more plants or maybe cornstalks and stuff like that, but with the porch installations, we usually stick to hay bales, mums and pumpkins.

Carmen> Oh now, I love that.

I will say though, it is very hot.

Tamara> It is very hot.

Carmen> Very hot today, and pumpkins I know, probably don't really like the heat.

How are we caring for these pumpkins?

How long should we expect them to last, realistically on a porch?

<Yeah> What do we do to keep them happy?

Tamara> So you can always check a pumpkin by the stem and by the bottom.

I usually do not leave almost rotten, beginning rotten pumpkins on a porch.

But these thicker heirloom pumpkins will last a very long time, even if they are nicked.

The jack-o'-lanterns, the thinner skins, the ones that you carve for Halloween, those don't last quite as long.

Especially, if the moisture gets inside to rot.

But if you go and get the acrylic plant spray, and I know some people don't like shiny, they do make a matte, but you can also just spray around the stem and spray the bottom, and it will protect the pumpkin.

Carmen> Well that's brilliant.

<Yes> Okay, good to know.

<Yeah> We saw at the farm that y'all are growing a lot of pumpkins.

Besides porch decoration, what else are we doing with the pumpkins?

Tamara> Well, we grow the Dutch Fork Pumpkin.

And that is a cooking pumpkin.

So we give it to the breweries around the Pee Dee area.

They can brew beers.

Some people make cocktails out of them.

And we are actually, we've actually been featured in several restaurants by the executive chefs around the Pee Dee area.

Carmen> Do you have a favorite recipe or dish?

Tamara> I do... So, I take the Dutch Fork Pumpkin I hollow it out, I make my chili with pumpkin chunks.

I put the chili into the Dutch Fork Pumpkin and put it in the oven and let it roast for about 30 minutes, and it's served from the pumpkin.

It's delicious, yes.

I can share that with you.

Carmen> Oh, now, that is wonderful.

Well, I've really enjoyed watching you work, <Thank you.> visiting your farm.

Where do we find out more information about Kirven Farms and The Grumpy Pumpkin?

Tamara> Absolutely, it's thegrumpypumpkinpatch@gmail.com We always have plenty of pumpkins in the patch.

You can follow us on Instagram or Facebook @thegrumpypumpkin Carmen> Well, thank you so much for having us.

Tamara> Thank you for coming.

This has been a lot of fun.

♪ Amanda> Well, thank you for taking us down and letting us learn all about the Kirvens and what they're doing.

Carmen> Yeah, it's great to see pumpkins.

here in South Carolina.

Amanda> I think you're going to do a craft for us.

Carmen> Oh, yeah, we can do a craft.

Amanda> You're our craft person.

Carmen> Yeah.

Oh, but... so I was going to do something with leaves, but I think I need some leaves.

Amanda> Oh, fall leaves.

Carmen> Start with some fall leaves.

<Okay> (door rolling open and shut) (skipping footsteps) Carmen> Ah, beautiful leaves.

Amanda> Who the heck is this?

Carmen> That's Ghost Pickle.

Amanda> Ghost Pickle?

Carmen> Ghost Pickle.

Amanda> Oh, okay.

Well, thank you for telling me.

Carmen> So ideally, what we're going to do is glycerin, preserved leaves.

<Yes> This is a wonderful activity.

We got a lot of requests this year to do, preserved leaves, because the leaves are looking very nice right now.

We kind of got an early fall foliage.

So for those of us who, you know, enjoy leaf peeping all the time, we can actually preserve them in glycerin.

Amanda> And then we could use them on the Thanksgiving table and all.

Carmen> That's correct.

Amanda> Wouldn't that be fun?

Carmen> Because when you preserve them in glycerin, what ends up happening?

They aren't as, crusty or they don't snap.

<Ooh> And so they retain kind of a bendy... flavor that works really great with, tablescapes or with your wreaths, whatever you want.

But the first thing is, it's a little bit of a process to get them to, soak up that glycerin.

So the trick is you actually want to soak it, any of these leaves for a couple days in a mixture of glycerin.

Amanda> Alright.

Glycerin and water.

Carmen> Water, we want, a one cup... it would be like one cup of glycerin to two cups of water.

So a one part glycerin, two parts water.

Amanda> Alrighty.

Is it hard to get glycerin?

Carmen> It's actually not very hard to get glycerin.

It's harder to get nitroglycerin, I found out.

Amanda> Well, that kind of makes sense.

Don't bring any nitroglycerin.

Carmen> Exactly.

But vegetable glycerin, you can get in the baking aisle if you wanted to.

Amanda> Come on.

Carmen> Mhm.

And always online.

But we have a nice selection there of our leaves.

We got some reds, some yellows and then, you just want to sit there and you want to mix your glycerin and your water.

Amanda> Oh, it's real thick.

Carmen> Oh, that one's crusty.

We want them fresh.

<Sure> I don't want any crusty ones.

So let me switch out some of those.

Ideally you want to see and make sure that you can do maybe one, maybe two layers of leaves.

But I like one layer of leaf, so that's going to be fine.

I just wanted to check that out to see if it works.

<Oh> You don't want to, get it too, crowded.

And what we want is the fresh leaves still bendy with a little bit a nice color in them.

There we go.

<Thank you.> And then let's go... do two parts.

Terasa> How exact do we need that ratio to be?

If you just eyeballed it, would it affect?

Carmen> It would, it would be fine.

So we're just, going to eyeball it.

The number one thing that you want to look into is, making sure that it does, become nice and homogenous so that we're mixing it up.

But, I'll just eyeball it at this point.

But you want to make sure that it's deep enough that it, that whole layer can be covered.

And you can do one, two leaves.

I've, we were doing some with big ol' wreaths, and we were doing entire Rubbermaid bins of them with gallons of glycerin.

I think that's going to be fine.

Amanda> So it's not horribly expensive?

Carmen> Nope, nope, nope.

<Okay> Alright.

And, oh, thank you.

And you just want to lay them down.

And what ends up happening is, we are- Glycerin is going to be really great because it's in a bunch of beauty products and things like that.

I like that yellow, that will- Amanda> We've got sweetgum.

Carmen> We've got sweetgum.

I think a couple, I think a maple, it might be all sweetgum.

But anything with a good color is very nice.

You can also do this with, your evergreens, too.

You can do it with magnolia leaves.

Eucalyptus.

What ends up happening and what I always learned how to do is you stick, those cut end in a vase of glycerin and water and it sucks up the glycerin through there.

They turn very dark black though, when you do it that way.

But they will always be pliable, very nice.

Here, what you can do is if you let these sit in the glycerin, it will soak up not only through, the petioles.

Amanda> Wait, this one needs to get it's tip... Carmen> Oh, good.

Good eye, good eye.

<Okay> Alright.

Let's get that.

Alright.

But what ends up happening, it's this way, we're getting all of the glycerin water through, and it actually saves the color.

<Whoa!> Now they will turn a little bit darker.

The red ones, especially dark.

I think it's the anthocyanin in there.

It, runs on water.

So as we're replacing it with glycerin, it's going to turn a little bit darker.

But the yellow, the yellow pigments are really great because those are- Yellow and orange, they are those, carotenoids?

Help me out, doctor.

Orange pigment, orange and yellow- Terasa> Xanthophylls.

Carmen> Yeah.

Those actually run a little bit more inside of the cells so they will stay a little bit longer.

<Fun> You want to keep these for, some people will do 24 hours if they want to maintain the color, more so than the pliability.

But a lot of people will wait two to six days.

It's just sitting in this glycerin bath so that when it comes out, it actually ends up being, a fully preserved leaf that you can just, pat dry and put in your arrangements or on your table.

It's not forever.

Amanda> And they're not going to crumble.

Carmen> They're not going to crumble.

They're going to be nice and pliable.

Amanda> Isn't that fun?

Carmen> Ideally though, we're not keeping these till next year.

They're still- And especially with glycerin, you know what loves sweet stuff, is rats.

So we're not putting it in the Halloween decoration storage.

But it will last for months and months.

And it's a wonderful activity for, you and folks that just want to do some fun crafting with foliage.

Terasa> Carmen, when you're drying them, do put them on like wax paper or something to dry?

Carmen> We want to pat them dry with a nice paper towel.

And you can let them air dry if you'd like, but they're always going to be a little bit oily.

Terasa> So, my next question, you beat me to it.

Carmen> So, you do not want to put them on anything that is probably going to drip.

So a nice place is, the mantle.

Some people don't like it dripping on the mantle, but outside, wonderful.

And in an arrangement with a bowl, also beautiful.

Maybe not directly on the, grandmother's tablecloth for Thanksgiving.

Great point.

Amanda> Well, I mean, I think you could get it out of the tablecloth.

Carmen> You probably could.

Amanda> Sure you could.

Carmen> But we're washing everything at Thanksgiving, why bother?

Amanda> I'm so excited.

Thank you so much.

I'm ready for some turkey.

Carmen> Yes, turkey and dressing.

Amanda> Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you, I can't wait till they come out and we can do something fun with them.

Terasa.

<Yes> Can we help someone else?

Terasa> Absolutely.

Addie from Cayce reached out and said, "We almost stepped on this.

We were able to take a couple of pictures before it took off and made us jump."

<Ooh> This sounds very Halloweenish.

(laughter) Amanda> Okay.

Vicky, we got here?

Vicky> So Addie's, Addie and her grandmother, Donna, they're some of my very favorite people.

They send me a lot of great stuff.

And on the surface, you look at this thing and you're like, "Oh, it's a snake."

But you can't, it doesn't really fit any of the IDs.

And you're kind of looking at it going, "What is this thing?"

And it's not actually a snake.

It is a legless lizard.

<Ah> And there's, a handful of species here.

This happens to be one of the more common ones.

This is the Eastern legless lizard.

And we know that it's not a snake because it has ear holes.

And then, so you're, you're looking at this thing and you're like, "well, you know, this is so weird."

And different- The legless lizards are really interesting because some of them have no legs at all, and some of them have like vestigial little legs.

Amanda> Yeah, residual kind of... Vicky> But they, they eat all sorts of stuff.

Normally you're going to find them, like deeper in the woodlands, maybe, next to a body of water... like a, like a creek or something like that.

They eat all sorts of stuff.

So they're eating insects.

They're eating, <Frogs> small mammals.

They'll eat bird eggs.

They'll even eat each other, if they find somebody that's small enough.

Amanda> Can they climb a tree to get to bird eggs?

Vicky> It's ground nesting birds.

Amanda> Oh, ground nesting.

Vicky> Ground nesting birds.

But this is a native species here, and it's actually pretty cool.

We don't see them very often.

I was telling, Addie's grandmother that, I've been in the woods since I was a kid.

I went to school for Wildlife Sciences in undergraduate.

And I've only seen one, that was the only one I've ever seen.

And then they send this, and it's, it's kind of a neat thing whenever you see it.

Amanda> Where were they when they spotted it?

Vicky> They were, they were walking out in Cayce.

This is like, out in their yard.

They, Donna and Addie, they have a great backyard and they find all sorts of stuff.

She sends me all sorts of pictures.

Amanda> That's a lucky grandkid.

Vicky> And these are really neat lizards.

I mean, they're they're on average, they're going to be about 12 inches long, but they can get up to 43 inches long.

Amanda> Whoo!

That's big.

Vicky> Could you imagine seeing a legless lizard that big?

That would be crazy.

But, yeah.

Amanda> So they, I guess, move... similarly to the way a snake does.

Vicky> It does.

So at first glance, you would think that it's a snake.

Amanda> Yeah, gosh.

What fun.

Vicky> Oh, it's a really neat find.

Amanda> Yeah, I can see why they're your favorite people.

Yeah.

Great.

Terasa> I follow a snake identification page on Facebook, and it's fairly common for people to post photos of the glass lizards and say, you know "What, snake is this?

It doesn't look like anything."

And well, that's why because it's not a snake.

Amanda> And I was going to ask because I think I've heard them called glass lizards and I don't know what that refers to.

Vicky> I think it's, just because they're, they're like, really slick.

Amanda> Slick.

Terasa> Yeah, shiny.

Amanda> Ah.

Vicky> Sleek.

Amanda> Fun.

Thanks so much.

Terasa.

Terasa> So much cool stuff in the world.

Let's see if we can help Daryl in Belton, who said, "my green beans and okra were extremely healthy and all of a sudden they've dropped their leaves and died?

What happened?"

Amanda> Huh.

Well, I think- Isn't that where you hail from?

Zack> Yeah.

I think that's my dad, he might have... (laughter) Maybe he didn't like my advice the first time.

I'll give him advice the second time.

(laughter continues) Amanda> So, I mean, we hadn't had a frost or anything.

Zack> Yeah.

So, it's Halloween.

So this is another little terrifying thing you don't want to find in the garden, that's super common.

But this year, I think it's been particularly worse, because of the drought we had.

It's the worst drought we've had in South Carolina history, 131 years.

But what's causing this issue?

When I went and looked at it, I pulled up the plants.

I always start with the roots.

<Sure> Because if you're suffering on top- It had remnants of roots, but they were all knotty and clubbed and gally.

And so what that is, is, is a root-knot nematode.

There are a lot of different species of nematode, but the famous and kind of the poster child is the root-knot.

And it happens a lot of times when you are growing susceptible species in the same spot year after year.

Even though you rotate, maybe from beans to squash to tomatoes, well, they're all a host for the nematode.

And so the populations over time build up.

And I think this year, because it was so hot, coupled with all the nematode galling and damage on the roots, then the plants weren't able to take up water and nutrients.

And so, you have a healthy crop, and then all of a sudden the leaves drop because there's no water and nutrient uptake.

And, Dad's not alone, we've seen this on a lot of farms this year that, you know, typically don't have, they probably have the problem, but it's not as obvious.

But this year it was a very obvious nematode year.

Amanda> I had some red okra I grew one year and it had big ol' roots.

I had to... I mean, it was hard to pull it up when I got tired of it.

It had terrible stink bug damage, though, as the season went on.

But it was just interesting from one cultivar to another.

How strange things can... Zack> Yeah, in places where, you know, we don't have nematodes, I tell people, if you want to see if you have nematodes, plant some okra and they'll show up.

Okay.

(laughter) Amanda> Well, yeah... and I hope you get enough okra to eat.

Thanks, okay.

Teresa.

Terasa> Sadly, I can vouch for the damage of rootknot nematodes in okra.

Happened in my own garden.

But we are going to try to help Will in Augusta, who sent in a photo and said, "We found this invasive... shovel-headed worm in our yard.

What do we do?"

Yikes.

Amanda> Gosh.

Invasive.

Vicky.

Vicky> Yeah.

So Will, he and his grandmother have found, a hammerhead worm.

And we've had these worms in our area of the country for about seventy years now.

<Yes> And they're... they're natural enemies of, like, earthworms and snails and slugs.

But they... they do have an impact on the species here.

Unfortunately, there's no real way to manage them on a large scale.

So you would end up, when you come across one of them, you would kill that one.

You don't want to chop it up.

Because they'll, there'll be more of them.

So what you're gonna end up doing is you can, you can put it in a baggie and put it in the freezer, kill it that way.

Or you can salt it, put some salt on it, dry them up.

But you have to be mindful because, you don't want to touch them with bare hands because sometimes the, they have chemicals on them that can be noxious and can be caustic and can irritate your skin.

So you want to be mindful of that, not to touch it with bare hands.

But there's, not a lot to do with it on a large scale because there's nothing labeled for hammerhead worm control.

Amanda> How much impact is it going to have on the things that we want to have?

Vicky> Well, we don't have a good way to measure it because this is not a regulated pest.

And so, we're not really tracking it, but you can we can use citizen science.

We can use, websites like EDDMapS, which is the University of Georgia's, invasive species and, ecosystem health- They have a reporting tool there.

And then we can also use iNaturalist, and we can upload pictures and put it there so that we can see where it is.

Amanda> Yes.

And if people... the iNaturalist, it's just a great thing.

And then if people run into it and then they can report where they saw it.

Wonderful.

<Yep> Alright, Zack, what you got for us?

Zack> Yeah, so I was on St.

Helena yesterday.

And I saw these beautiful... (Amanda laughing) maroon fruit, growing on a cactus.

And I figured I'd pick a few.

I personally have never eaten them.

These are prickly pear.

And I probably won't pick them again after I spent the two and half hour ride home, picking out... spines, yeah.

And you can't see them- <I know.> -is the thing.

Amanda> But they sure are a nuisance when they get in your hand.

Zack> They are.

And I've heard about folks eating these and juicing them and that sort of thing.

But today, I wanted to see if anybody was brave enough on the Halloween Show, to help me eat one of these.

<Sure> Carmen> That's a gorgeous color.

Zack> It's beautiful.

Amanda> Beautiful.

Carmen> Looks like a beet.

Amanda> Doesn't it though?

Gosh.

Zack> And I think you're just supposed to peel it.

Amanda> Well, we'd probably rather not have those things in our... <Yeah> Bless your heart, I mean, you're doing it now?

I hope you're not gonna get- Zack> Here we go.

Open it up a little bit.

I think I got them all in me yesterday, so I don't think there's any left to get- Terasa> You took one for the team.

Amanda> So if you're going to harvest some of these, you would probably want to wear some gloves that you can throw away.

Zack> Yeah, and after the fact I read a fact sheet from New Mexico State on how to properly harvest these, so you don't get stickers in you.

But y'all want to try it?

Are y'all brave enough?

Carmen> Sure.

Terasa> Do we have any idea, are we expecting it to be sweet, sour?

Zack> I've never had one before, so... Amanda> It's got little seeds in it too.

Zack> It's got some hard seeds in it.

(laughter) Terasa> After I watched your reaction, I'm not just... Zack> It's mildly sweet.

Amanda> It's pleasant.

Zack> It's pleasant.

It's like a... it kind of tastes like a beet.

I don't know if mentally that's kind of where my head's at.

Amanda> Those little seeds are hard.

Carmen> I've had it as jam before.

Zack> Yeah, yeah.

Carmen> That looks like a great jam fruit.

Zack> And I think people pickle it, and use it for, you know, dyes and stuff too.

Amanda> That seems... <Definitely> Terasa> So if you were going to harvest one, what would be the method for removing all of that?

Is there a... <Prickle> Zack> Yeah, I think you're supposed to wear gloves.

And they said to wear, you know, like, eye protection and be real careful.

Amanda> And I think if people, they need to be careful about their teeth, I mean, you could potentially... Zack> Yeah.

They're little hard seeds.

Carmen> Those are tiny.

Zack> But it is a native cactus.

And I do see them growing, in sand dunes in the sand dune ecosystem along the beaches and things.

So, it's a cool plant.

<Yeah> I would never plant it after picking it.

But I'll probably pick some more.

Amanda> They're pretty when they bloom too.

Zack> Yes, they are.

Amanda> Very pretty.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much.

<Yeah> Well, it is pumpkin carving time.

And my husband, Edward Wimberly came over one time and carved a pumpkin for us.

I hope you'll enjoy seeing the outcome.

I went to the farmer's market and got this and I think you've done part of the hard work already.

Edward> Yeah, everybody knows what a mess it is.

I've already, pulled all the seeds out of it.

Amanda> So you cut- Edward> Cut a whole in the top.

Amanda> Okay, so that part is done.

Edward> That part is done.

Amanda> I'm gonna save the seeds because I like to toast them, don't you?

Edward> Yes, yeah.

You've always done that.

Amanda> One of the benefits, but we usually don't make pie.

Edward> One of the delights of pumpkin.

Amanda> We usually don't make a pie though.

Anyway, well I'm gonna move these out of the way and then we're gonna let you start working your magic on this jack-o'-lantern.

Edward> Alright.

Well, I've got a nice little knife here and that's what you need to carve a pumpkin with, a nice little knife with a kind of narrow blade because that way you can make curves.

I'm not a fancy pumpkin... carver.

I'm a traditionalist, you know, so this is just gonna be a jack-o'-lantern with eyes and a nose and stuff like that.

♪ So, on the other hand I'm interested in, ♪ always have taken... a clue from the Japanese Noh theater because they have such interesting and extreme... expressions on their masks.

So I'm gonna give it a little bit of a... (sawing sounds) ♪ turn like that.

♪ And then I'm going to cut the eyes and the nose and eyebrows.

And this is where having a knife with a narrow blade in it comes in handy because you can cut little circles like that.

I'm going to give this pumpkin a tongue and I'm making the tongue out of this Dobby squash here.

There we go.

♪ One time... ♪ when we had our first house in St.

Matthews I had great success with pumpkin like this with a tongue.

Amanda was taking our children trick-or-treating and I was left at home.

So, I had a pumpkin and... I had an old pumpkin that had grown up in the side yard but it was way before Thanksgiving, I mean before Halloween and... ♪ and it rotted.

Well, that is to say it got a big rotten spot in it.

So I had a pumpkin to carve and I had this half of a pumpkin that was... so I decided that I would take half of the pumpkin and make ears ♪ and a tongue.

(laughter) ♪ And I did that and when I couldn't get through when I was finishing up, I couldn't get the tongue to stay on the pumpkin.

I put the pumpkin down the porch.

♪ So I took the knife that I was carving with, and stuck it through the tongue into the porch floor to hold the tongue in place.

And the little children who came trick-or-treating around were very impressed, let me tell you.

♪ It was one of the most successful pumpkins I ever did.

♪ The Japanese are always... emphasizing the corners of the mouth to make it look like the characters are under great stress.

♪ So... ♪ (Edward laughing) ♪ Alright... what do you think of that?

(stabbing sounds) ♪ Amanda> I think it'd be fun if we showed everybody what you do, to try to look scary too.

Would you be willing to put your costume on for us?

Edward> Sure.

♪ (stabbing sound) ♪ ♪ For the final touch.

♪ Boo!

Amanda> I hope you have fun, if you're carving a pumpkin.

And, I hope you have a wonderful Halloween.

Thank you all so much for coming.

This was great.

Happy Halloween everybody.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Narrator> Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Wesley Commons, a full service continuing care retirement community located on more than 150 wooded acres in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.