May 5 2022
Planting with Pals!
Today we’re high-fiving companion planting and community gardening! Not only is gardening with friends fantastic fun, but it’s also good for our plants and neighbors, too! Our very special guest, Bri Andrews, walks us through all the ways planting together can make our communities stronger! Plus, music, laughs, and more on this bountiful episode of the Gro-Town podcast!
For more information on Peace Tree Parks, visit www.peacetreeparks.org
Music. Garden. Community. Gro-Town!
For free coloring sheets, videos, music and more, visit www.gro-town.com
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
introducing a celebration of growing stuff and your host for this Gargantuan gardening gala is Miss Danielle
Thanks announcer guy.
Welcome to grow town where we celebrate the love of gardening together.
Did you know we're not the only ones that love to celebrate gardening together some of our plants due to really it's called companion planting.
A companion is a friend and a partner and growing some plant friends right next to each other can do all sorts of wonderful things why?
Some plant friends can attract good insects together or even fight off the bad ones.
Companion plants can help each other grow bigger and even taste better.
The most famous companion plants in the garden are known as the three sisters.
Three sisters planting isn't about people.
The three sisters are plant sisters.
According to Native American legend,
corn beans and squash are loyal sisters that can only grow and flourish together.
These three crops provide a healthy nourishing diet and by planting them together they nourish each other too as the corn grows,
it acts as a poll for the beans.
To climb.
Those bean vines make the corn stalks stronger so they don't blow over.
The squash plants have large leaves that shade protect and keep moist the roots of all three sisters by working together as companions.
These three sister crops help each other be the best they can be to plant a seed.
You need sun and love and dirt.
I like gardening with my sister Amelia.
When you want to plant a seed,
you have to dig a hole,
drop a seed in and watch it grow.
And sometimes if you garden with other people,
maybe water the plants with them or pick vegetables with them.
I garden with mama marco and daddy and sometimes maple but maple only eats plants.
Maple is my dog.
Thanks everyone.
As you can see growing together is good for everyone.
Plants and people,
there are lots of ways gardening together can help an entire community of people.
Here are a few notes.
I've written about the beautiful benefits of community gardening.
Hang on.
It's it's around here somewhere.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes.
Don't forget to call plumber about leaky toilet.
Wait that's not it.
It's a different note.
Okay,
let's see.
I got it.
Got it.
Got it.
Okay.
Here we go again.
Here we go team.
Okay.
Mhm eggs,
butter,
prune juice,
oat milk,
that's not it either.
That's my shopping list.
You know what I think we should just talk to a good friend of mine who knows a whole lot about community gardening because she started one of her very own from peace Tree parks in Detroit michigan.
It's bree Andrews Hi bri Hi,
how are you?
I'm doing great.
So happy to talk to you today.
I want to ask what is peace?
Tree parks and what do you do?
Peace Tree parks is a nonprofit organization that we started to increase the access that Detroit residents have to organic produce.
So to carry out that mission we actually started purchasing vacant land across the city of Detroit and converting them into community gardens or community members have access to.
And we also have a residential garden program where we go to the homes of people across metro Detroit and we build gardens in their backyard for families to have access to.
So you build gardens for your whole community.
Yes we do For Children and their parents bri how can gardening help a community gardening can help a community because people can just go outside and they can have access to fresh food growing out of the earth.
So instead of having to go to the grocery store,
because that takes a lot of times sometimes or sometimes it takes a lot of resources to even get to the grocery store growing your own food allows you access to just walk up the street or walk outside and have access to food for you to eat.
So the whole community can have healthy food and eat it and grow it together.
That is correct.
How can kids and they're grownups get involved in growing for their own communities.
Any advice I think that it's as simple as planting seeds.
So if you have access to any seeds,
even just after you eat a fruit,
some of those fruits or vegetables have seeds in them,
you just go outside and you plant a seed in the ground and from the water and the sun eventually it will grow.
So if um kids or grownups want to just start planting seeds in the ground,
then they can watch those seeds turn into plants which will produce food for them or other members in the community to have access to.
That's a great place to start.
One last question.
What's your favorite thing to grow?
So I actually have two things that are my favorite things to grow.
The first thing that I love to grow our peppers.
I love to grow peppers because there's so many different peppers that you can grow.
And usually when I grow peppers,
I'm always surprised by which pepper it is because I always forget when I plant them what peppers I planted.
So you can grow red bell peppers,
Yellow bell peppers,
green peppers,
habanero peppers.
Um ghost peppers.
There's so many different peppers and usually I never know what they are until I bite into them.
So I love the element of surprise what peppers they are.
And then I love to grow strawberries.
But the one thing about strawberries is sometimes it can take a little time for them to grow.
But when they do come,
they are so sweet and bright red and they taste so good and it's good food to fuel you while you're working in the garden.
Wonderful mystery peppers and beautiful berries.
Thanks brie.
And there you have it from plants helping plants to people helping people when we garden together everybody wins.
It's enough to make you say,
oh,
see you next time.
Oh,
oh,
oh,
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oh,
oh,
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oh,
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uh huh grow town is a multimedia endeavor for Children using gardening as our conduit.
We seek to instill a sense of belonging gratitude and wonderment for the world outside our windows and a simple love of growing stuff.
Music,
garden community grow town for free,
coloring pages,
videos,
music and more visit grow dash town dot com.
That's gr oh,
dash T O W N dot com.
