Kinship Family Forum: Gardening is Fun

- We have been trying to really put out information that we think is important for families, and specifically Kinship families.

So we thank you for joining us today for our monthly Kinship Family Forum.

So as we said, we are part of Penn State Extension, and if Kinorea can jump to her next slide here, I can tell you a little bit about what's happening here.

So with me today, I do have a couple team members.

Jackie Zitzelberger, Rozalia Horvath, and Cynthia Pollich are also members of the relatives as parents.

- All of a sudden I can't forward, I'm sorry.

I may have to go out and come back.

- Shut down your screen and - Yeah.

- Share screen, okay.

So I can continue talking.

Our presenter today is one of our own master gardeners here on my part of the state over in Western Pennsylvania, Kinorea Tigri.

and Kinorea has been with the Master Gardener Program for about five years.

She's been a employee of Penn State Extension for the last four, and she'll tell you a little bit more about her interest and passions in a few moments.

As part of Penn State Extension, we always are trying to bring the research-based information to you, our constituents out in the community.

We are part of the Land Grant University here and always trying to bring the research and answer the questions that you have.

So this morning, or this afternoon I guess it is now, Kinorea will give you a little bit about the gardening information that she's gonna present.

We will have a time for you to ask questions, but we'll also encourage you to enter those questions in the chat.

We'll be able to see them as her supporters here for the presentation and answer some of those questions.

Because I've known Kinorea for a little while and been able to talk to her, I do know some of the things that are in her brain about gardening because I do ask her a lot of questions myself, and we can definitely help you out.

And if there's not something that you think of today but you think of it later, you can always reach out to us in any one of our county offices and we can connect you with a master gardener or a food family and health professional to answer some of your questions.

So Kinorea, go ahead and take it away.

If you can pull up your screen and if it's gonna work.

- Is it working?

- We don't see anything, no.

- Oh no.

I'm so sorry.

I guess what I'm gonna have to do is, I did.

Here I was all set and ready to go in fresh shape.

- That's okay. - Jeez.

All right.

- Now you should be good.

- Oh wait.

How if I pull up the right one?

Can you see that now?

I usually, I am good at bringing, doing this.

- You are good, probably because we changed the host.

It might change something, so don't worry about it.

- I dunno why that keeps popping up.

Just bear with me, thank you for your patience.

- That's okay.

- All right, we're finally there.

Can everybody see this? - Yes.

Thank you, thank you for coming.

I know everybody doesn't think gardening is fun, but here's another way of thinking about it.

It's bringing families together and it's growing more than just vegetables.

Gardening allows you to grow your own vegetables.

And this is great because there's nothing better than having fresh food, fruits, and vegetables, and everything.

And no matter how big or small this pot you have, there's more to just gardening than just growing your own food.

The rewards of growing your vegetable extend beyond the dinner table.

And you know, the dinner table always brought us together, and I know this could for you.

We wanna plan a garden, and you may discover that you are, and we're gonna discuss some of the things that you are doing without even realizing it.

You know, gardens are fun to me.

I grew up with 106 year old grandma and she taught me everything about gardening.

But the first thing is, is growing healthy, there's nothing better than eating the rainbow of your garden.

And if you talk, children love rainbows.

So if you talk about your fruits and vegetables as a rainbow and how it actually benefits you, here's an example.

Anything that's red, it's a healthy heart, it helps with memory function, lower the risk of some cancers, urinary tract infection, or you know, health.

And that is a tomato, or red pepper, or our beets.

So each one of these colors has vegetables that can benefit you, and you can find more information on choosemyplate.gov for additional information that you can share with the children.

And this is the best, growing happiness.

How about that?

They're all smiling, aren't they?

But it helps relieve stress, reduces anxiety, and believe it or not, there is a mycobacterium that is in the soils that if you get your bare hands in this, it alters the brain chemistry and increases the dopamine and serotonin.

That's why we always have happy gardeners, and it increased self-esteem.

And an addition to that is self-confidence in you, and working with the children, and the children working with you and learning about gardening.

Growing is activity.

Believe it or not, you don't realize you're getting exercise in a garden by bending, pulling, kneeling, tugging.

And this is part of more of the horticultural therapy that we have.

But it falls right in line with it by getting out, getting some sunshine, and enjoying the day.

And growing, here's the most important part, is growing relationships, that's working together.

You know, there's people that go to the garden.

I'm garden alone, so I don't have anybody to talk to but my plants, okay?

So yeah, I know that's crazy.

But I enjoy saying, "All right, I'm here to help and everything." But by opening a conversation with the child, you can say, "What do you wanna plant today?

What do you want to do today in the garden?

Did you know?" You know, leading with a question.

And you'll be amazed having a conversation with them, will open them up to asking questions and before you know it, they're talking about their day, what kind of day they had, what they'd like to do for the future.

You know, are they having fun, you know?

As far as being in the garden.

So this is what's really important.

This is what the meat of this is all about, is growing that relationship with the child and have an everlasting impact on them.

Like I said, my grandmother to this day, I think of her every time I plant something and everything because of what she instilled in me and the conversations that we had.

But here's the other thing, growing relationships and cooking what you've grown and sharing a meal, this is, there's nothing better than harvesting the vegetables that you've grown or the herbs, go into the kitchen, teach them how to have food safety and washing their hands, washing the fruits and vegetables accordingly, and about food safety and cross-contamination.

You know, we have to be careful about that.

So there's things that you can teach them that'll be life skills forever.

And here's one of my master gardeners, and this reminds me of my family table 'cause I'm the oldest of 13 children, and with grandma, mom and dad, that was 15 people to feed every day.

And this is a good example of what my dinner table looks like, but this is one of my master gardeners that she had a family outing and she does exactly that.

She works with the children in the garden, they help her grow it and everything.

So it's just, it's this brings together family relations on a whole scale as opposed to an individual scale with just you alone, it brings the family together also.

And I think this picture paints, it says it all.

She's like, "I don't wanna eat those peas, and carrots, and broccoli, and you know, tomatoes.

But there's nothing more exciting than seeing a child grow his own vegetables from seed, see it grow, tend to it, care for it, and the next thing you know, they're pulling it off the stem 'cause they're watching you, children emulate you, but they're pulling off that ripe cherry tomato and tasting it right straight from the garden.

What better way to learn to eat those vegetables and everything.

So this is a "Aha" moment is what I call.

And they don't like peas?

Well, why don't you grow this instead?

The snow pod peas or the sugar snap peas, you can pull them right off and eat them fresh.

So it's, and it's a different visual effect to them too, because they've always seen peas, they see that they're not gonna try it, but they see this, they might be willing to try it.

And why not grow your favorite colors?

You know, colors indicate health like we were talking about, your colors of your, your rainbow of your garden.

And believe it or not, those purple beans that you see up there in the upper right hand corner, when you cook them, they turn green.

It's amazing to watch that process.

And the kids will be amazed, you know?

You can talk about nature and how things are there for a reason and how healthy they would be for you.

Growing something different.

This is really cool.

I make it a point to grow something different every year.

And you know, as gardeners we are always experimenting.

We have our successes and failures and that's okay because mother nature comes into play, you know, with weather, with rain, and sun, and you know, pest infestation, diseases and everything.

So, you know, it's a trial and error, but this is the way you learn what to do next year and not do.

But those yardlong beans that little girl has in the middle, you can see that's gonna be enough for that big family that you saw previously, because I've done this, they cut up into a lot of beans.

I'd say what she's got there is probably three or four pounds, if not more, once they're cut up and they are delicious and tender.

Ah, and along with family relationships and individual relationships, is growing a family tradition.

Nancy, the one that had the large family outing, she always had a summer gathering and they featured Sarah salad and she always loved going to the garden, packing the fresh ingredients, picking the fresh ingredients, and making this delicious salad.

And by writing down this recipe, she's able to pass this on and this can continue for generations.

I can say that my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, they all left me excellent recipes and everything.

And those are tried and true and you know, they're great to pass on to them.

It's something that they can try when they get older and pass on to their children.

So like I say, it does become generational.

And I didn't know it was called Sarah salad, but I'm gonna have to try this 'cause it sounds good 'cause it's with leafy greens, scallions, cooked peas or blanche pea pods, you can add carrots, but you layer this and put julienne Swiss cheese in there and repeat these layers, chill it for two hours or more, and toss before serving.

And I tell you what, it's amazing how all these ingredients melt.

You put a little sugar in there, salt and pepper.

And I tell you what, it's amazing.

Growing a cultural heritage.

I am Cherokee, I grew up in Cherokee, North Carolina.

My family had a thousand acre farm in the Smoky Mountains.

My grandmother, like I said, who lived to be 106, garden until she was 100.

And she had garden tools that you would not think about.

But you know, back then she didn't have such tools.

So she took deer antlers and made a rake out of them.

It was probably six point or more.

And she tethered that with rawhide and sinew and pitch and tethered that onto a good sturdy stick or limb and used that as her rake.

And then she took the deer shoulder blade and used that as her hoe.

And I still have her last ones that she had.

And she had hand tools.

She used the other scapula, the other deer shoulder blade as a hand hoe.

And she's told me, she says, "When these tools break, I'm done." And she, you know, and that's when she quit gardening, a hundred years old.

It was amazing.

She was very spry and capable and everything.

But she also taught us the way of Native American gardening.

And one thing that's very well known is called the Three Sisters.

And here's a picture of the Three Sisters.

Here's your corn, here's your beans.

And what they do is they grow up the stock.

This is early, and then here is your squash or your cucumbers, whatever vining that you pump.

It could be pumpkin, it could be melons, but typically it's corns, beans, and squash that we typically grew.

And there's a great story behind that as far as our cultural lessons.

But she taught us many things just about gardening, but about life too, and how to be strong.

And with every story she told us, there was a lesson to be learned from it.

And it taught us confidence, it taught us to believe in ourselves and that we can do anything no matter what we're dealing with through the day.

And I miss her every day, but when I'm in the garden, I'm with her every day too.

Here's another thought, growing an ethnic heritage.

This is master gardener named Mario.

His parents immigrated from Italy, and every Sunday they had made fresh pasta and sauce and she always grew her own tomatoes and basil.

And she took them from a garden.

And Mario wants to pass this on to his grandchildren because this is teaching about their ethnic background and what foods are typical.

Like when we have some of these demonstration gardens by master gardeners, when we're in an area that's very diverse, we try to implement their foods into the gardens and it's a welcoming environment and everything.

And the kids just love it because as you can see, he's right there in the garden with grandpa and harvesting the tomatoes, and he's getting to enjoy eating them.

Here's really something cool is growing in knowledge.

This is a great exercise for the kids.

If you get some beans that you're not planning this year or something, or something left over, take some wet, moist paper towels, soak your beans, I soak my beans overnight to loosen that skin, that coating on the outside so that they can sprout.

And then put them in between the moist paper towel, put it in a baggie and then put it in a warm place.

Say 70, 75 degrees.

You don't wanna put it outside 'cause the sun will cook them because of the moisture, it'll just destroy them.

But let them watch the process of these seeds sprouting and what's gonna become a plant.

And you know, we've got the seed coating here where it's broke away 'cause it's softened.

This is all the carbohydrates and food that needs it to grow.

And here's the radicle, and then you've got your roots start, oops, you got your roots starting to sprout and everything.

But the nice thing about it, the kids can actually, the third picture from the left where that sprout is sticking up, that's the best one to actually plant in the ground.

They can go ahead and plant that straight in the ground and so the picture to the far right, that way they're not breaking off the roots or anything because it's really tender and easy to break off.

So I recommend the third picture beside that one there.

And you can do succession planting with beans and peas and everything where, you know, one week you plant them and they come up and about two to three weeks later you can plant another set of beans nearby the vertical your, you know, your trellis or anything.

Plant it on the other side of the trellis if you haven't done that already.

And you're always gonna have beans throughout the summer.

And you can do that with a number of things.

You can do it with your peas in the cool time.

You can do your cucumbers vertically.

I've seen squash grown vertically.

Melons I don't recommend, but you can do this with a lot of your bigger seeds, especially your bean seeds.

And the kids will have fun just watching this, the process grow, and it'll help them to understand more what's going on with the plant.

'Cause I like to teach them all parts of the plant, you know, the stem, what the roots do, the leaves, what they do as far as photosynthesis, and the flowers, you know, there's where your fruit comes in.

And this is what we get from getting started, okay?

The other thing is preparing, decide what you want to plant.

This is a great time during the winter months when you can't get out, it's too cold, or snow's too deep, or whatever, is to plan your garden.

You got all your seed catalogs coming in during the winter months.

Go through and look at what they want and let them pick something that they want to grow, that they'd like to try.

Because pictures, paint a picture that, you know, will entice them to say, "Oh, I'd like to try that." Like rainbow Swiss chard, you know, the colors are enticing, you know, and it reminds you of the rainbow of the garden.

So you know, let them try something different and teach them how to plan that garden.

And think about the different families of the vegetables.

There's nine families of the vegetables and you have to make sure that you rotate those crops because there's certain pests and diseases that are synonymous with them, that you want to get that plant away from them so that it doesn't affect them next year.

And we rotate crops about every two to three years, depending on any problems that you may have.

The other thing is, here again, we're getting out in the garden and we're playing in the dirt or the soils as master gardeners call it.

And we can teach them how to do a soil sample.

There's great directions on how to gather a soil sample.

And this involves like some of their school skills as far as reading and writing.

You know, they might wanna fill, let them do, make a double copy of this soil form and let them fill it out, and let them get experience with it, and send out the one that, you know, is legible.

You know, I don't know if, you know, how well they write and everything, but you know, let them try it out themselves.

And they will remember this as being a very important part of the growing process of your vegetables.

Because plants are like us, they need water, they need sun, they need food, they need air.

So you know, it's teaching them the parts of a plant.

And here's something that we can take even further, is when you're planting that garden and in the books they give a lot of information.

But on the seed packet, once you get your seeds packets, they can read a lot of stuff on there and you can talk about what they mean.

Like, you know, it says here days to harvest a hundred days.

So you can explain to them what the harvest is, when it will be, and back it up to make sure that it's, you know, after the last frost.

So we don't have to start something growing and then lose it because of frost.

And then, you know, the temperature they need and the seed depth.

That's very important 'cause all seeds have different depth requirements to establish and grow.

And plant spacing, that's important because we call it the footprint of a plant.

So we wanna look at it as what it will be mature.

This one is 12 to 24 inches apart.

So that's how far apart you need to plant those seeds.

Otherwise they're gonna crowd each other.

They won't get air circulation, and you might lose that plant or might not do very well.

And most importantly is the sun requirement.

This requires eight to 12 hours.

So you need to have a good clear space.

And this is something that they can learn, you know, about gardening and what to plant where.

Getting your garden ready.

Oh the kids just, this is the fun part where the kids love to get into the soil and play with it, break up the crumbles.

You can see there's some hoeing or some raking.

And this is an example of a raised bed without borders, without wood containers compressed together.

And one thing, the picture on the left, I don't know about you, but I like straight rows, so you know what I do?

I lay down a garden hose and kids can get one end, you get the other end, pull it straight and let them start planting right along that garden hose and you'll have a nice straight row.

Make sure to remember to mark what's there so that when they're starting to come up you can show the children the difference between a lettuce and a radish leaf.

You know, they get to know this, they get familiar with this.

So it's learning more about vegetables as they're growing in all stages.

And it, like I said, it opens up for good conversation.

And if you have no space, no problem, you can use containers.

On the left there, you've got totes that are being reused.

Make sure that the totes are a solid color because you cannot use clear 'cause that will burn the roots.

They'll be exposed to the sun and that will cook them, literally, okay?

Here's something in the middle, it's called grow bags.

They're wonderful, especially if you wanna do potatoes, they have potato grow bags.

And the kids, this is what's neat, there's a little flap down at the bottom where the kids could peek in and see the potatoes growing, or harvest them from the bottom.

And you just have to know how to properly build that soil mound when the plant is growing.

I have found these bags so far.

One of my bags has lasted seven years, but they say three to five with good care.

But I'm going on my seventh year and someone's told me that they had one for 10 years.

So they're very hefty, sturdy bags and they have handles where you can move them around, pick them up.

If you get the 10 gallon ones, that gets a little bit harder to tote around and everything.

So, you know, put it where you want to plant it and let it grow, is the important things.

And it's accessible to the children.

This is great because they can get down on their little knees and you know, pull out any weeds that are coming up, and water really easy too.

The picture to the right is containers, five gallon buckets.

I've come to do some research and I've found that buckets at Home Depot or Lowe's, the colored buckets are not food grade safe.

So what we recommend, Home Depot is now providing food grade white buckets.

They're solid white so they're not clear, they're solid white.

And that's what we recommend for growing in containers.

I like to grow my tomatoes and peppers in containers because I can control their spacing, and their sun access, and everything.

So, and that's easy to do.

And you can see they're artistically painted them with plastic paint.

And here's another thing up in the upper right hand corner, have you ever picked up a bag of soil and dropped it and it broke, and you didn't wanna mess with it or it just was too hard to move around?

Well I just go ahead and slid it, and make an X on it, and I plant the seeds, and there it goes.

It just grows wonderfully.

In fact, it's probably more intense growing because it's the pure potting mix or garden soil that you have there.

There's no soil viruses, or soil disease, or pests in there as of yet.

And it's a job for everyone.

I tell you, we do a summer program in the parks and we are teaching them how to grow vegetables.

And every time they show up, the first thing they do is go get the watering cans and they're watering like crazy.

They love watering.

And you know, the important thing is teaching them the proper way to water.

And when to water, okay?

And then there's always harvest time, there's always looking for pest and diseases.

You can teach them what to look for.

And I don't know a kid, any kid, so far I've run into that doesn't like bugs of some kind.

You know, whether it's a praying mantis, or a butterfly, or a bee or something, they're always looking.

This is one way to teach them about pests in the garden.

And there's good bugs and bad bugs.

So we can teach them both.

Even the little helpers, there's nothing like seeing the little guys in the garden.

This is starting them young and they'll remember this forever.

One thing on the left, little girls pulling out a carrot, but you wanna be a helper, you can help them and dig out a little of the soil around it so it's easy for them to pull out, so it doesn't break.

But there's nothing more prouder than seeing them pull that vegetable out and hold it up and just have the biggest smile on their face.

And this little guy, I think he's inspecting the tomato plants, they're not quite, there's not any fruit on there.

So he's just inspecting the garden and he was taught how to pull weeds, he recognized weeds.

So he's probably gonna be the next Penn State master gardener, weed control person.

And the one thing is we as grandparents, you know, we wanna be comfortable in what we're doing and sometimes it's not easy.

But these are really great tools for your back, for your knees.

I have not found them in the box stores, but you can find them in a lot of growing supply catalogs, they're great.

And then here is the hand tools.

Oh, they're absolutely awesome.

Because they actually in a natural wrist position and it reduces fatigue and pressure on the joints.

But I feel you have a, at this point, you have a stronger push to dig down, or cut through or something.

It just seems to be easier for some reason.

I've got some of these tools and they're wonderful.

This is my favorite, grow comfortably.

These are products that, you know, there's all kinds of products out there, but this is my butt buggy.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that, that's what I call it, but it's my seat in the garden that I can sit down and bring out my container, harvest, or pull weeds, or whatever I need to do.

You can put your tools underneath, it's very strong.

It holds my weight and it's easy to get around with the handle that extends that you can pull around.

If you got tight spaces, it's not real good.

That's the reason why you always want to put a minimum of three feet, this is my philosophy, three feet between your garden beds and you know, this bed is a good bed height for the vegetables 'cause you want 12 to 16 inches in depth for your vegetables to grow.

But I have seen for the handicap, make your beds waist high but when you're dealing with your children, you don't wanna make it too high 'cause they can't enjoy it and they can't get in.

But maybe you wanna make an herb bed just for you to get around.

But this height right here is the perfect height I would recommend.

And here's another tool that I have that's real easy 'cause I can pick this up and just cart it around.

It's spring loaded, the legs collapse where it's just one piece, you can kneel on it, or you can sit on it.

So it's very comfortable and it's an easy way to get to harvesting and everything.

Now I use the kneeling pad part for my weeds, when I have to get down into a bed that I have to reach over and get into or something, it helps me leverage myself and get the right angle.

So it's perfect for growing.

But the kids love it too because they think it's neat that you can kneel on it and you turn it over and you can sit on it.

So it's a great tool to ease your back.

And of course we want to enjoy the beauty of growing your garden all the way around.

Between the blossoms, the insects.

You've got flies, you've got wasp, you've got bees, you've got your corn growing with this, that will become corn.

And here's something neat, this little tomato will not be used anytime soon because if you see here, it's got a monarch butterfly chrysalis attached to it.

And this is just, it's teaching more than gardening.

It's learning about insects and everything.

And it was a cool find, that when we came across that.

And your harvest, of course there's nothing better than looking forward to the harvest.

You know, it's getting out there recognizing what's ready to go.

It's deciding what you want to pick, especially if it's for your next meal that you wanna cook and share with your family, or picking to harvest and to store.

You know, there's drying, there's freezing, there's canning, and that's a whole nother part of the process.

But this is great when you can harvest and enjoy, going out together with a big basket.

And let them pick some and teach them the proper way of picking some of your fruit.

Some of your fruit has to be cut a certain distance from the stem.

Others like tomatoes, if you can twist it and it comes off easily, it's ready to be picked.

You know, besides being ripe and nice and firm and everything.

So there's a lot to gardening that we could go into in depth and talk about all the different aspects.

But there is nothing better than being in the garden with your grandchildren, your nieces or nephews, and opening up the conversation about gardening, their life, your life, what you wanna do in the future.

You know, you'd be amazed at what happens, the transformation not only of the vegetables as they're growing, but the transformation the children as they're growing in the garden also.

So there's my, so any questions?

- So Kinorea, I was thinking as you were talking here, I love those smaller ergonomics tools because they're the perfect size for children as well as us, you know?

- Yes. - As we get older.

But if you were thinking of starting, you know, maybe your first container garden or something with children, what would be the thing that would grow?

We know children aren't very patient sometimes.

What would be the thing that you would recommend to grow that they would see the quickest result in a product?

- Your lettuce comes up really good, your radishes and flowers.

Oh, and I did not, I neglected to talk about flowers in the garden, I'm sorry.

I didn't think of it until now.

But flowers in the garden are very important because it brings the pollinators to make the, to pollinate the flowers, to make the fruit.

So marigolds come up quickly, zinnias, that kind of thing.

Tomatoes takes a longer time 'cause of harvest time.

Peas, peas and beans come up pretty quick.

Like I said, if you do that germination process, that exercise, that will give that a headstart and they'll come up within a few days actually at that step.

And that's, and they get nice big and bushy and you can put trellis, a teepee like in the bucket and let the, the vine grow up the stems.

- Okay, and I'm asking that because I have done a little bit of gardening with my grandkids.

I have a seven year old and a five year old who are really into that.

They always, they wanna plant every seed, you know, they've taken the apple seeds out of their apples and tried to plant them and of course have gotten nothing.

- Right. - But you know, an avocado seed, they managed to actually grow a plant last year.

But this year when I sent them, I think I did send lettuce and broccoli seeds and they did exactly what you just said not to do, is they planted every seed in that pot.

And so they have, you know, tons of things in there growing now, but they weren't patient enough to just put, you know, a seed here, a seed there.

But they diligently watched those plants.

- Yes. - Last year they just got those little pea tomatoes and I was just thinking about what you said, you know, they would get out there and they would see one ripe and they were taking it off right away.

So it was a wonderful thing for us to do as a fun activity to bond.

But I noticed how many questions they asked.

- Yes. - You know, about all those products and how long it was gonna take.

They tried a watermelon or a pumpkin seed.

They realized they needed a male and a female.

So I'm impressed with what, you know, they can learn.

So those of you who are out there who have small children and think maybe they're not gonna comprehend some of those things Kinorea said, they really do comprehend some of those terminologies and learn the science behind things.

- Oh yes they do, they pick up on that.

And the other thing is that maybe they, you know, when there's downtime and they come in and it, you know, they're still excited about it, gardening, have them document, have them write down what they did for the day and what happened to their plant.

And that way it teaches them what not to do next year.

Like they planted all the seeds in one bucket.

They didn't come up, did they?

So, you know, next year when you show them how to properly do it, you know, let them document that and they'll remember that, they have something to go back to.

And it incorporates writing skills and everything .

And you can work right along beside them.

It's a good exercise.

Making like a gardening journal more or less.

- Cynthia, do you have a question?

I saw you pop on, comment.

- I was just coming back, but I did put in the chat box if you didn't see, that Firehouse Subs sells their pickle containers and the money that they sell the pickle containers for goes back to your local fire company.

If you have a Firehouse Sub near you, you just have to let the air out 'cause they smell like pickles 'cause pickles came in.

- Yeah. - But it's a nice way to support your fire company and get a food bucket - That's nice.

- to plant in.

And Dunkin' Donuts will often give them away what their frosting comes in.

- Yeah. - You know, so I'm guessing they're food safe because all their jelly and frosting comes in them.

- Yeah, and a lot of your restaurants, you can go to restaurants too that, you know, have local, your local restaurants that may have one, that get rid of all their buckets.

If you go around the back of a restaurant and you see a lot of buckets piled up, that's a good place to start really.

And same goes for your rain barrels that you might have in your garden, you wanna make sure that they're food grade rain barrels, you don't want chemicals or anything.

And there's a way to sanitize all these containers.

And if, especially if you grow container gardening, you know, like the five gallon buckets, each year you wanna sanitize them and that's one part bleach to nine parts water, you rinse, you put them in that solution for five, 10 minutes and then you take them out, rinse them and let them air dry in the sun.

And you've got, you've possibly gotten rid of any disease or insects that might have laid eggs in there, are still in the crack at the bottom that you can't see.

So that's a good way to sanitize your containers.

- Questions from the audience here.

Other questions about gardening with children that you might have had, that might have been the reason you joined us today.

You can type them in the chat or you can unmute, we're okay with that.

- One thing that we do is we go into the schools for K through fourth grade and we set up a whole day.

We get a cell pack, a four cell pack and we grow two vegetables and two seeds.

It's a way to teach them how to start seeds and care for them.

We have care instructions to take home and then we send home pumpkin seeds and give them how to plant and how to care for it and everything.

And you'll be amazed how many come back 'cause we do this every year.

So the first graders when they go to second grade, they get to do it again and so forth.

And this is instilling that they're learning how to grow these seeds, and care for them, and you'd be amazed how many come back with pictures and tell us how big they got, how many tomatoes they got.

'Cause we do cherry tomatoes and cucumbers and we do zinnias and sunflower seeds 'cause they seem to be the quickest to come up.

- So Jackie, can you share a little bit about the experience with your kids and gardening, your own children?

- Yeah, and I was gonna ask Kinorea about that too.

Is that one thing that we've done to be able to sort of extend the growing season and also have the experience of growing your own plants is that we developed, well we created a germination station.

- Oh great. - And so it's actually a shop lights, but they have a very high intensity and so it's, you have to make sure that, you know, you're not just using your regular low voltage shop lights, so.

- Yeah, you don't wanna use the old ones because they get too hot, they'll cook the plant.

- Yeah, so the LEDs are the way to go.

- Yes. - You know, they have like we purchased like the 5,000 lumens.

But we set that up and it's worked really well for us.

And then we have a lot of fun.

So we actually try to grow quite a few things from seeds.

We're successful most of the time, but sometimes some of them are a little bit more particular.

They like to have warm feet.

So we, I think next year we're gonna have to buy some heat pads. - Yes.

- For our little peppers, 'cause their peppers are just not happy unless they're warm.

- Yeah, most- - All the rest of the things seem to grow well. - Well most seeds, to get germinated they need 65 to 75 degrees.

So constant, continuous.

They need anywhere from 14 to 16 hours of light.

They do need that downtime to sleep more or less, to rest.

And you'll be successful at that.

The other thing is make sure you rotate a quarter turn every couple days so they go straighter.

And then once they get bigger, it's ideal to have a low volume fan 'cause the wind makes them stronger.

And that's great.

- Yeah, so what we do is, you know, we then eventually sort of plant, what we do is we plan our planting so that when they get a certain height or a certain size, then we purchased an inexpensive greenhouse.

- Oh okay. - And we put that outside and then we also then take, it seems like a lot of work, but it actually is kind of fun to see them grow.

So then we take them out of the greenhouse and put them on the ground so the wind can blow them around and then we put them back in the greenhouse at night.

- Yeah you're hardening them off, yeah.

- Yeah so, and it's a fun process because, you know, and right now I'm actually glad that we started to learn how to do this because, well for one thing we really try to go very organic and for another thing is that the plants now, if you go to purchase, if you wanna purchase a plant at any of the stores, they're averaging about $5 a plant.

- Yeah, yeah they are. - Which is pretty expensive.

- Yes. - And so growing from seeds is really the way to go.

But yeah, we've done the germination station which has really helped as far as getting the plants to- - Great. - To get started early and then we do that process of moving them outside and then allowing them some time underneath the trees in the breeze. - You know, another fun exercise is teaching the kids how to make newspaper pots. - Yeah.

- So that when they're taking these little seedlings and they're getting to a point where they can be transplanted, they need a bigger pot 'cause they're getting root bound.

- Right. - Transplant them into these newspaper pots.

And the neat thing about it, this newspaper pot can go down into the ground and it decomposes. - Yeah.

- So it's teaching them about upcycling, recycling, and everything too. - And composting.

- And composting, yes.

We teach a program called Seed to Supper, it's seed to supper cooking on growing vegetables on a budget and these are things that we implement.

Another thing is, what's fun is get a half gallon milk jug with a screw top lid, okay?

Because some of those garden water jugs are too heavy for the kids to handle, they're awkward.

So if you get a half gallon jug with a screw top, drill some holes in it from the outside, don't do it from the inside, do it from the outside.

'Cause you don't want that sharpness of those of that drilling through to poke them, fill it up with water, screw that lid on, and they got instant watering can, they love it?

- Yeah, and Kinorea you should tell folks how to start, you know, for your winter crops because that's fun too.

- Yes, yes. - We start in January with our milk jugs. - Yes, winter sowing, yes.

We are gonna be doing that this fall with another Seed to Supper program and doing winter sowing.

There's a lot of information out there with, you know, you cut, keep your handle on your milk jug, cut a portion of it off, and watch them grow, it's amazing.

And then there's a way that once they grow and you get ready to plant them, and you, "Oh, I planted them too soon." Something like that.

Take a two liter pop bottle, cut the bottom off, put it over top that plant and it creates a cloche, it's like a greenhouse effect and it will protect them from any frost. - Yeah.

- So there's so many things that we could be upcycling, and reusing, and everything.

- Yeah, it's fun to do the milk jugs 'cause you can start that, you know, right after Christmas and you know, if you save those clear milk jugs then you can use those as little greenhouses and put, it's always surprises me that when we put those outside in the snow that then, - Oh yeah.

- When April rolls around then we have lots of lettuce, and cabbage, and things coming up in our little milk jugs.

So that's a another fun activity that we do.

And actually, you know, have a lot of plants that we can plant in the garden then too.

- Yes. - We planted Brussels sprouts last year, so that was kind of fun that they went, and they turned out very well.

- Yeah, I planted my Brussels sprouts directly in the ground one year, I moved from Beaver County up to Crawford County and that was a whole two different, hardiness zone's different, and I was harvesting Brussels sprouts in the snow at Christmas time. - Yeah.

- Yeah, they're hardy. - Yeah.

- We gonna put some information in because we've had some questions, Kinorea.

So I put your email in there.

- Okay. - Rozie also put in because we had some questions on the Seed to Supper program.

So she put in the master gardener website as well as your outreach Seed to Supper website there.

So you might get some additional questions from people on those programs.

And Kinorea is very great, like I said, of answering questions, she has a lot of knowledge.

She's been gardening for a lot of years so we really appreciate her being able to join us.

- There's a question about someone who's in West Virginia- - He would check with his extension, see if they've got an extension office and see if they're doing it because, let me see, I know Seed to Supper's in multiple states.

I know it's in Kentucky.

Let me check the states, I got it right here.

I got the book.

- I'm sure they have their master gardeners in West Virginia. - Let me see.

- It's a matter if you're doing the Seed to Supper programs.

- I thought I had it. - Yeah, we can find out that.

- Jonathan, yeah you can email.

- But I know they're in. - She'll be happy to- - Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania.

I don't know if it's in West Virginia but check your extension office and see if they have it and if they want more information on that to maybe get it started down there, I'll be glad to help them.

I am the assistant to the lead in Pennsylvania on the Seed to Supper program.

So I teach how to get started, how to teach the instructors, and children's program.

I'm with, I'm the lead on youth growing gardeners, which we teach a lot of youth based one to third grades on growing parts of a plant, you know herbs, all kinds of stuff like that.

So there's several resources that I can give you if something's not available in your state.

- Jonathan is looking for it for both his grandchildren, I believe, in a classroom.

- Darlene's talking I don't hear her.

- Oh no.

- Can you hear me now?

- Darlene, I can hear you. - You can hear me, okay.

- Yeah, Darlene go ahead.

- Okay, so if you have questions you can email.

I put Kinorea's number in there, for those of you who want some.

- I can't hear you, Darlene.

- Can everybody else hear me? - Yes, Darlene, go ahead.

- So it's you Kinorea.

Yeah, so we're gonna just continue to send questions to Kinorea or you know, ask her specifics and we can get some things started there.

Okay, yeah Brenda, in your county or in your state, we do a lot of collaboration with other extensions so we always know what's available there.

Rozie also put in the chat our next Kinship Family Forum which will be 101 things to keep kids busy.

That'll be Cynthia and I presenting that and we hope you can join us.

You can register for that at the same extension website that you registered for this forum for.

So we do thank you for joining us today.

Thank you Kinorea for being with us and helping us out here to answer some of these questions.

I learned a couple things.

I wrote a couple things down so that I remember.

- Me too, thank you Kinorea.

And I just wanna add that every time we teach the mental health first aid, we ask people, "But what do you do for self-care?" Gardening is always on the list.

- Yes. - So even just seeing the picture, it just gives you some, you know, stress relief.

- Well my husband worries about me going out in the yard and working too hard 'cause once I get started in the morning I don't stop till dinnertime and I tell him, I says, "Honey this is my playtime." - Right. - And says, "Leave me alone." - Stress relief.

Yeah, we have a lot of people using it as stress relief and as Jackie said, saving money.

- Yes. - You know, is so important.

So, we saw some benefits today, you know, of that family bonding, science for kids, you know, mental health wellbeing for us.

So thank you so much for being willing to come and join us today.