We planted plant to plant.

And I said, we are growing or growing.

We planted God to plant.

And I said, Oh, we bought we phone, we planted planted today from the third pillar beside Willow, beside from the earth.

You did that with tree planting.

I am grown, I said, I'm from the earth and say they brought food.

We planted.

We put food on food, we planted planted plant.

And I said I born iPhone, planted planted plant.

And I said, Your food, your phone message plant, not content or grown or grown.

Come back.

We planted planted to die.

Hi, I'm Carlos Robles of UPI Cooperative Extension Service, and welcome to Homegrown.

I am inspired.

You know, I am inspired.

Take a look at these babies.

This is what the home grown is all about.

These tomatoes are actually the size of market tomatoes.

Do you want to know where they're grown?

They're grown right in Saint John, in a state involved on the east end of Saint John.

And I want to welcome me to the home of Mark Corrigan.

Mark, since the last time we've been here.

Welcome back to Home grown, by the way.

Yes, thank you.

Good.

I am impressed.

These are gorgeous tomatoes.

It's been a while since I've been back here.

What am I seeing up and not?

What am I seeing?

Tell me.

They were the plants that the home grown products provided.

And we put them in.

We built the trellis here to hold them up and very good have been tying them up as needed to go fertilizing them a little bit.

And they've been irrigation every day to keep them watered.

And this is the product and they're absolutely gorgeous.

Have you picked from them already?

I have not picked from this bunch yet.

It looks like it's getting ready for the next day or so.

But I do have other cherry tomatoes that I have been thinking, okay, that I've been growing in boxes.

What you don't know is alongside this Mark has been growing some other things here in his garden and we'll talk about those at a later time.

But it's it's just incredible the production that you've gotten thus far with the tomatoes.

And now I'm here looking at the peppers.

Have you picked peppers already?

So this is the first cropping up peppers also.

The first ones are some beautiful red peppers right there that are pretty good size as they are.

Yep.

Nice size, actually.

Very good size.

So you want you can pick one of them off.

We can show they're ready to go.

So I have the honor of picking them up.

Sure, sure.

Provide them.

Great.

Let's see.

Let me borrow your clippers.

Yeah.

There you go.

Okay, You can let them see the.

Okay, Now you can either pick these off here or let them ripe fully red on the tree.

However, there's a risk with that because there are certain birds around here that we know how trashy they see them.

They come eat them.

So the best time to get them is when you can get them.

So I'll start with the bigger of the two.

Snip that off Beauty four.

This is what home grown is all about.

Yep.

Gorgeous.

That's a beautiful color.

Smells great.

Gorgeous color.

Thank you.

Go.

All right.

Nice and firm.

Nice texture.

And the real test will be eating it later.

That's right.

All right.

And you have another one here.

But this one interesting to me is showing that sign of that virus when those Gemini viruses.

But you've been able to successfully with both plants, get at least some large food.

But unfortunately, one or two of the other plants have kind of succumbed to that Gemini virus.

Yeah, they're really stunted.

And again, that happens with just about all tomatoes.

I'm sorry, some pepper plants, the sweet pepper plants, they begin to show symptoms of this Gemini virus.

But if the plants can get up to a stage where they're big, as these are, you can see as you saw what we just picked, they were able to outgrow it for a period of time, get a nice, lovely pepper and you continue to produce.

However, we're going to look at another one back on the other end and see what doesn't happen because of the Gemini virus.

And it's interesting, it still was able to get a fruit, but the plant itself is not very tall.

This actually is stunted.

This actually succumbed to the virus.

And even though it's being watered, it just doesn't have the energy and the plants leaves are not open wide enough to be able to provide enough food.

The virus is draining its reserve.

It would still be able to push out a flower and a fruit, which actually is still edible.

But we'll let it go.

This, too, is beginning to succumb to the virus, but this is a fairly it's fairly respectable.

Yeah, the good, the very good pepper.

And I notice since there are some spices, you've added some herbs that most people don't know about or probably haven't seen grow.

Tell us what this one is.

This is a cilantro plant that I did by a plant here was able to start because I haven't had any luck starting with seeds.

But I'm letting this one go to flower in the hopes of collecting seed from it so that I'll have a hardier seed crop because it did thrive here with this thing.

That's great, the environment here.

So I'm hoping to start some more seeds from that.

Okay.

And we have the scallions, green onions and yeah, double.

Those are some little scrawny things that we had in these guinea.

And these started this one single thing and now it's five or six.

It's a whole bunch of scallions now, which I didn't know it was going to.

I thought the one was going to get bigger.

I know it was going to spread to become more fruit on it, to pick from it.

And that Rosemary has put on some.

Oh yes it hasn't it.

Yes, it's a few years old but I've cut it quite regularly to use for cooking.

And of course I have friends that stop around to get something.

So I tell everybody I've got it and okay, it's very fragrant and it's doing very well.

Okay.

And you've added something here.

Okay, which is getting ready.

It's also going to flower.

It does have a very attractive flower.

Also, we'll be able to get more seeds from it.

And also you can use the fennel seeds for cooking or cooking also.

And then the stalk and the stems, you'll be able to cut like celery and saute it or use it role in salads and things.

Okay.

On the fennel, we did have a very successful lettuce crop.

I think that we started them about the size of these little ones here when you were here and put it in the irrigation and I've picked the lettuce numerous times, but it's still produced this topiary seed head here that's going up, which will actually produce a nice flower.

And again, we'll take the seeds to hopefully use for a new crop of those.

Okay.

And if you notice, he's talking about allowing things to grow the seed.

One of the things about gardening that you might want to try is allowing some of your crops to grow to seed and replanting.

As he rightfully said, they're now beginning to become acclimatized to this general area and replanting the seeds.

Well, you have no idea what you're going to get, but that's part of the beauty of gardening, That's part of the science of gardening, that's part of learning from Mother Nature.

And there are so many things to learn as you go along in this whole process that it's not just about planting and eating.

There's some there's some serious science going on here that will help you help your schoolchildren, help anybody who just enjoys the beauty of gardening.

We've got to be or I don't know whether it goes right on cue, every is up.

The bees enjoy the plants and flowers and also the water here, which they're in a hive that's nearby here.

But they also check out all the plants and make sure everything stays pollinated.

And another thing about the flowers from the plants is there are a lot of them are very, very attractive also that.

Okay, but great.

But so tell me, what has been your experience thus far with the Garden?

I mean, when we started and to now that you've gotten to this place, we really enjoyed the lettuce.

We produced a lot of lettuce.

I was hoping to have lettuce and tomatoes at the same time, which didn't happen, didn't have they grow quite quickly and you have the maturity of quite fast.

Okay, so I guess I should have started to made it.

The lettuce was so good and doesn't take up much room and it was a very productive crop.

I think I would plant more of it and maybe plan it every couple of weeks to stagger so you can keep a continuous flow of the lettuce was very productive.

Okay, so there's a lesson for you.

Let us grow fairly quickly.

If you want to have lettuce and tomatoes, have a good succession planting.

Okay.

He has some lettuce in here now, but as you see, these are these tomatoes are already red.

So but there are some green and some in transition red from red to green.

So he may still eventually have a combination of the lettuce and the peppers and some tomatoes as part of his salad.

And speaking of cucumbers, I notice that you've gotten attacked.

Yes.

Okay.

The worms.

Yes.

The cucumbers started out with such fury.

They were growing like crazy.

I thought I was going to be picking bushels of cucumbers every week.

But the caterpillar, they got attacked by the caterpillar that folds the leaves over and eats the leaves.

And they were just uncontrollable and they took over the plant.

I did pick a half a dozen or so cucumbers off of it that were nice.

They produced some very nice big fat cucumbers.

I'll think cucumber.

That's the calypso variety.

Yep.

So they were very nice.

I was looking forward to them, but I didn't get as many as I would have liked.

Okay.

And since then, I happen to have with me some more seeds, so I guess one will put some more in.

Oh, is that the seed?

There you go.

Great.

You got three seeds.

All right.

Thank you.

And you can reinstall those.

And we're going to get another crop and then we'll talk about again, they're the BT products, and I'll show you some of those that you can get to use and keep an eye on them.

Because as you rightfully said in your experience, you are you are manually getting hold of them, the worms and taking care of them.

But there were so many coming at once.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they feed ferociously.

So no, the plant couldn't, couldn't handle it.

And I was really looking forward to seeing this whole thing full of Vine and cucumbers.

I was worried about the weight was going to be pulling it down, which would have been a nice problem.

Right.

All right, good.

So we will we will go back to that.

We'll start with those seeds and try that again.

Yes.

And great.

And so what do you think about the drip irrigation?

It's been very good.

I've only been running it about a half an hour in the morning each day.

And that's been seeming to do enough to keep everything healthy.

Good, good.

So it hasn't taken all that much water to keep this plot drying going.

Okay, that's great.

That's great.

The irrigation folks, this is our follow up to Mark's place.

As you can see, it's been very productive for him.

He's had his challenges, but he's been able to eat from it and eat from it comfortably.

Mark, it's been good having you on the program today.

Much success with you with your garden.

Thank you.

And man, those tomatoes.

I am impressed.

I'm inspired.

Now you have to watch out for your neighbors visiting your house a lot more often.

Mark, again, thank you for your time here in the Homegrown project and we really appreciate it.

I'm sure you've got a lot out of it, as we have just coming in.

Okay.

And we're going to go now to another home and see how they're doing and again, encapsulate and show the rest of the audience what's been happening with some of the other projects.

So let's go over and take a look at the cherry tomatoes that you've had growing aside from the home grown project.

All right, Today we're on the big island of Saint Croix in a Christian junior high school, well, where we'll be revisiting the Illinois Christian Junior high school box garden.

In our previous show, we looked at the construction of the box, but today we'll be looking at the progress of the box and all that has gone on since we last came here to the school.

With us today is Miss Bell, who's the leader of the The Garden Project and two of our students.

Jack, you and Sean are tell me a little bit about what we have in front of us today.

This is peppers, bell peppers, the tomatoes and the tomatoes.

All right, Troy.

Okay, so we had put water up almost every day after school.

We put that inside of the box.

But let me ask you this.

Did you have lettuce in head one day?

Yes, I think because originally part of what we were dealing with, including lettuce, but I don't see any lettuce.

Oh, there's a story on the lettuce.

There's a story on the lettuce.

Yeah.

We had picket to make some sandwiches were bogus and to grill some more bogus.

Okay, so already harvest the lettuce and eat the lettuce.

That's quick.

All right.

So I know you have arthritis, too.

Yes.

You eat some of the lettuce?

Yes.

Okay.

Was it good?

The lettuce was really good.

Okay, good.

Now, these weren't all the same size.

About how big were the plants when we all started, When you started planting them.

Two inches.

Two inches.

Most of them.

All of them.

Rock Point out.

Okay, what we have in front here, that's the stripe.

Those are the chains.

Okay.

I notice that there's a different space in and this is what was this one?

Forget it is a factoid.

Yes, but.

But this wasn't positive.

First plant in this battle.

No, it wasn't that.

This is something you did after work.

Yes.

When we went back to agriculture to we had to harvest things of lettuce.

So far since we started it.

Yes, we ate it all.

We were trying to hold out for you to come back, but it got so big and beautiful that it's multiple watering.

So we went ahead and harvested and I was given two or three pack showed by the agriculture station.

So we brought them out.

We planted them in here and they were just about an inch or two and now they're blooming.

So we're planning with what we're going to cook with them.

Okay, that's good.

Let's let's walk around the front and see how things have been growing in the front.

No.

Have you guys learned anything from this project since you have been on board, any anything to have first of all, any of you have any of you doing any gardening before this project started?

Yes.

Okay.

Where did you do you any gardening or at home?

Okay.

Revolution?

Yes, I've done gardening at home.

At home.

Okay.

Is there anything in this garden that's different from what you are doing at home?

Not really.

Okay, so I don't have no tomatoes.

Tomatoes.

Okay.

I love basil or basil and the choy.

Okay.

Now, did any of you have drip irrigation before or in any way gardens at home?

Shawn No, no.

Drip irrigation.

So this is the first time you're seeing drip irrigation being used or if you've seen it before, I've seen it before.

Okay.

What is the first time you're using it in a garden where you're actively participating in it?

Yes.

Okay.

What do you think about drip irrigation?

I think it's good because the plants really need the water every now and then, and you have to keep them for the like the soil, fertilize for the roots.

Okay, Jackie, you at home, did you use any drip irrigation in your, in your garden.

No, but my grandmother have one.

She has one.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now let's take a tour of the rest of your garden and see what else we have to see.

I'm looking at your tomato bush bushes.

I even see one that's beginning to blush.

Red.

When would you pick that?

About Friday or Thursday.

Okay, so you pick it in the next couple of days.

Okay.

Have you had any problems with birds or anything?

Yes, the birds.

So have you had any birds picking them as yet?

Yes.

Okay.

It had one of them.

What about them?

I eat it all.

Okay.

All right.

That's just part of when you're dealing with garden.

I need to.

That's just part of the things that you have to deal with.

The insects holds up the plants because they don't really like vines.

And we have this stuck in.

So hold them up.

And these layers and I notice that these are string onion but you use in this stockings I saw on for you using stockings.

Why are you using the stockings as opposed to using the, the yarn right around the plant itself right there on the branch.

Well we use the non to hold up the sticks because if we use a yarn to hold the plant itself, the yarn could cut through the branch of the tree.

Okay.

Okay.

Good point.

So this is soft and it wouldn't rub up against the the stem and eventually break it.

And that's a good point because as they rightfully pointed out, tomatoes grow like veins and they need support.

Most of them need support.

I mean, you could let it run on the ground, but you run into the problem of having the fruit sitting on the ground, getting water up underneath it, or insects coming in and eating at it.

And as I pointed out, birds will come anyway, but at least it's up off the ground.

It stays clean.

And with having the netting, the stocking is just used as a means of hauling the plant up without a breathing the stem on causing causing a break in the stem or causing on abrasion on the stem and on creating a problem for the plant down the road.

And I see you have one that's just about right.

Yes.

Okay.

That one is just about ready.

Can you pick that one in a few days?

Have you eaten any admission from here?

Yes.

Are the days.

It is very good.

Have you had have you been able to compare the tomatoes from the store with the tomatoes like this?

Yes, the tomatoes from the store aren't really fresh as these are fresh because they're home grown and I actually help them grow.

I raise them.

Okay, This is like saying that's my family.

Uh huh, Yes, I do.

Very good.

Okay, good.

Jack, you think it is better than the store?

Yes.

We go to store, have them there for about a couple of days.

Mm hmm.

The sun will hit these a lot, and they are kind of wrinkly and soft serve.

So would have to pick them quicker.

Eat them.

Okay, let's see what else you have in your garden.

I notice initially when we started, we just had the box.

But I've noticed that you guys have expanded the tires.

Yes.

Okay.

What was the idea and why did you want to expand tires or you guys?

Sean Well, we wanted to extend the tires because you can only have one box garden because I'm sure we'll want to plant more stuff and different stuff besides tomatoes and other stuff.

Okay.

So as we as you can see, we have lemongrass, which is lemongrass.

Okay?

And we have more tomatoes over here.

I see the birds have picked on it.

Okay.

Which is right there to figure out the okra.

Okay.

That's only one okra planter you have.

You have a couple others.

I noticed they didn't survive too well, but that's good.

We have about.

Okay, What else have you got?

Some tomatoes.

We even got beets over here.

You have beets.

Okay.

What I need, as you can see, the turning red.

Okay?

And they'll soon be ready to pick.

But as you can see, had animals eaten this.

Okay, What?

You weren't able to identify them yet.

Okay, Actually, we did have someone coming from the station, the agriculture station?

Jeff?

Yeah, he's the entomologist and entomologist, and he told us what it was and what to do.

Okay, So we've identified it on Wednesday.

We had a lot of improvement.

However, we've been harvesting beets already and we've been harvesting the leaves as well.

Okay.

So the leaves separate from them.

Yeah, we we mix this in with our salads.

We've been having the beets, we've been great in the beets on eating with our well when we have our barbecue here in the afternoon, we have a barbecue here.

Oh, yeah.

All day.

Everything.

Yeah.

When we come to our gardening class, we make it a point.

That's the end of the gardening week.

And we do our barbecue.

Daddy, We set up our grill, and we have.

We.

We have some fun.

Soon we have to follow you and proceed with this process.

And we have also stuff that we planted from seeds itself like you know, the of to create a fruit orchard some day.

Okay so some sugar apple and we also have pigeon peas and other kind of like the French time or wild time right this time.

Yeah.

So we're planning to really do a lot more.

We also have a tremendous box garden on the win over on the other side of it.

I will talk about that.

One of these these huge.

All right.

So Shawn and Jacqui, you since you've been a part of this project, what have you gotten out of it personally?

We got we learned how to make our own garden.

And I would talk to us about pouring a lot of them up high because, again, you're going to start to see them evaporate.

They're not really going to have too much pressure.

Okay.

Oh, from not if you have to the water from up.

Hey, okay.

Because in this instance, you don't have the drip irrigation system on this side and it's not yet.

So you still kind of hand water in where it is.

Yes.

When you pour it too hard, what happens?

The water start to erode the soil.

Okay.

So you're learning the roots and principles as well.

Okay, good.

Shawn, what have you gotten out of this of this project since you've been around it and that you've learned?

Possibly.

Miss Bell taught me how to make the soil open so they can breed more by putting foam little pieces of foam inside the dirt itself, and it will open up the soil so the plant can breed So.

So I could open up, be more aerated so that soil, the the soil itself can be loose and you can get air through it.

Is that part of the way you are learning?

Yes.

Okay.

Anonymous bell.

I really thank you for having Jacqui Lynch on here today.

But I know that they aren't the only ones that are part of this project, are they?

Oh, no.

I have several more students.

As a matter of fact, they're over there admiring what's going on right now.

And I'd like to have them to come over here.

Okay.

So at this time, we'll get a chance to see the rest of the students that have been involved with this garden project here at the Leonard Christian Junior High School.

And you'll get a chance to meet them as they gather around us here and you get a little bit of that experience.

But again, it took a team effort to have to put this on together, and we're going to have to meet the rest of the team.

All right, Miss Bell, or have them introduce themselves as they go.

We'll start here with this young man.

Tell us your name and what are you in Goulburn?

I mean, your name is Cooper.

I came.

Cooper and you're in seventh grade and you've been a part of this from the beginning.

Good.

And your name is Richard.

And Mr. Ricardo Richards.

And you're in the seventh grade.

Okay.

And we have Duck.

You come on forward here, and your name is I'm Designers and I'm in the seventh grade is at Miller's and you're in the seventh grade.

And you've been a part of this project from the beginning to it.

All right, Come up.

And you are.

My name is.

My name is 77th grade.

Okay.

I know.

You know, most girls don't like to get their hands dirty.

Why you choose to be in this?

I choose to be in it because I learn so far.

But frankly, I never went on before and is also relaxing.

Oh, I like the relaxing part.

That's good.

It's called horticulture therapy.

You know it is actually.

You could get a degree in horticulture therapy.

They use this in hospitals with sick people or sometimes even use it with inmates or they use it for people who are under stress.

They put them out to work in a garden.

And what did you experience just working in the garden?

I it's a lot of fun.

I learned I never never had a plan like this before.

Okay.

Have you ever eaten it before?

No.

And now you're eating it.

Good.

Thank you.

Next.

Come on out.

And you are.

Come on, Come on, come on, Come on, Francis.

All right, who's next?

And you are?

Glenn, this is Glenn Diesel.

As in diesel engine.

Good.

All right, Glenn, you're in the seventh grade also.

Yeah.

What brought you to this project?

Like to learn all kinds of stuff, huh?

So many things.

Okay, Name me one thing that you've learned since you've been in this project that made you say, Oh.

Huh?

I didn't know that total.

Like, for, like, weeks in class.

And so girl class.

Have you ever gotten before?

No.

No.

Okay.

What about the box?

God, no.

You see, Have you ever seen a box?

The I never before.

So this is a whole new experience for you?

Yeah.

Okay.

You think you'll continue as a part of it program?

Yes.

Good.

All right, Mr. Diesel.

Thank you.

I next, I know he was a part of the project from the beginning.

Right, Mr. Bell, what's the name again?

He's Derek Jenkins.

Derek Beets.

All right.

Tell me what you've learned since you've been a part of this project.

You're in seventh grade also.

Okay.

Tell me what you've learned.

They're not plants, but a kind of see different type of different people out here.

Plants need different type of care.

Oh, that's an excellent that's an excellent point.

And that's a good point as well, because as we've learned and you see throughout the whole homegrown process, that each plant requires different care, requires different water and some like the lettuce, do you think that it would take that sort of a thing for lettuce to be ready to eat?

Yeah.

How have you had any experience with gardening before?

Yeah.

Okay.

So was this new to you or was there anything about this that was new to you as opposed to what you did before?

Nothing was new.

So you were able to help the class in the group.

Okay, so you the experience guy.

All right.

Thank you.

Miss Bell.

You had a good group working with.

I know you had your days with them, but overall and not, I think would you say the experience has been good for them?

Oh, yes.

They they love coming out here.

Okay, good.

All right.

So if I'm here one Thursday afternoon, I'll probably stop by.

Okay.

You guys could treat me to any tomatoes.

Not the ones with the bird picking it.

What's wrong with the ones with the bird?

That we supposed to throw those away?

No, You could keep those there.

Yeah, just making sure.

And that's another edition of Home Grown.

We were wrapping up here at Alaina Christian Junior High School.

We thank you for viewing today's program.

I will look forward to seeing you next time.

On Home Grown Come back.

We planted plant to plant and I said all grown boy growing every plant is gone to plant.

And I've seen a way more way for God to contain from the earth to the dirt Come back with tiller beside willow, beside from the earth to the dirt could be brought to know why you see the home grown.