Diggin’ in the Dirt!

We’re bound to run into a few creepy crawlies while digging in the dirt, but are some better for the garden than others? We’ll hear from Tim Urban from the Cranbrook Institute of Science to tell us more! Plus, from our latest record, Green Album, we’ll catch the podcast debut of Ladybug! Which pests are best? Let’s find out!   For videos, music, free coloring pages, and more, visit www.gro-town.com FB @grotown Instagram @grotownofficial Cranbrook Institute of Science |   #LadyBugs #Gro-Town #Bugs #GreenAlbum #DanielleCarlomusto #TimUrban #BugExpert  

Super tasty and super fun to say, the Saskatoon is the teeny tiny berry with big, delicious flavor! Just what makes this “super berry” so super, anyway? Miss Danielle welcomes Carole the Saskatoon farmer to tell us! Also, we’ll find out what Mr. Announcer Guy has been up to all winter (spoiler alert: it’s…a lot)! Plus, you’ll hear the big debut of “Saskatoon Berry” from our latest record, Green Album! Celebrate growing season with the only gardening podcast that’s just for kids! Growing tips, music, and plenty of laughs - it’s Gro-Town’s season two premiere!   For videos, music, free coloring pages, and more, visit www.gro-town.com FB @grotown Instagram @grotownofficial Follow Christofferson’s Farms on Facebook    

It’s a Halloween harvest of fun! Join Miss Danielle as she gets the dirt on pumpkins and why they’re the superstars of the garden this time of year! Plus, a beautifully bewitching introduction to our favorite nighttime garden pollinators: bats! Music, laughs, gardening tips and more on the only gardening podcast that’s just for kids! It’s sure to be a spooooky good time - boo! www.gro-town.com Insta @grotownofficial FB @grotown   Our bat expert: Sara Pavliscak Our pumpkin expert: Darby Anderson works as the Sustainable Agriculture Instructor at Michigan State University Tollgate Farm and Education Center in Novi, Michigan. Tollgate provides the unique opportunity to experience agriculture hands-on in an urban environment through classes, workshops, field trips, camps, and events. It is also home to the Sustainable Agriculture Program, a 5-acre vegetable production distributed through a 250-member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). As the Sustainable Agriculture Instructor, Darby oversees the day-to-day operation from planting to harvesting to weeding and hosts a 6-month Beginner Farmer Training Program each season.

Let’s discover all the bee-autiful basics our gardens need to grow & flourish! In this episode, we’re joined by Momcat Kelly, founder of the Detroit Butterfly Nursery! She’s got the sweet skinny on pollinators - who they are, why we need them, and how to attract them to our gardens! Plus, Miss Danielle finds a musical way to celebrate Gardening 101! Music, laughs, and more on the only gardening podcast that's just for kids! www.gro-town.com   The Detroit Butterfly Nursery is a Mother-Daughter project promoting community science and pollinator conservation. They're passionate about educating others about the importance of planting native plants and milkweed for Monarchs. Detroit Butterfly Nursery is on IG.   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT introducing a celebration of growing stuff. Welcome to Gro-Town where we celebrate the love of gardening together. I'm Miss Danielle and today I've brought my trusty guitar to celebrate with us and just as we're coming together today as gardening partners are plants and seeds need reliable partners to growing is serious business and our gardening goodies simply can't do it alone here instead of talking about it. Let's try singing about it. Well you know that reminds me this show is serious business and and I can't do it alone. Maybe I should call another friend to help me out today. Yeah I'll think about it. Okay. Okay back to the song. Well well you know it really is amazing how working together with a dedicated team can really help you achieve your goals. Oh and that teamwork really does make the dream work. Okay. Okay. Okay here we go. Well I've got me a packet of seeds. A packet of vegetable seeds. Indeed. Well I got me a packet of seeds and to grow they'll need some what do they need? They need water but that's not all they need. Well I got me a packet of seeds, a packet of vegetable seeds. Indeed. Well I got me a packet of seeds and to grow they'll also need what else do they need Sunshine? That's right. Light and sunshine but that's not all. Well I got me a packet of seeds a packet of vegetable seeds. Indeed. Well I got me a packet of seeds and to grow they'll also need or what else we said? Water, Sunshine, soil. That's right but there's one other thing that our seeds need to grow in the garden? Well I got me a packet of seeds. A packet of vegetable seeds. Indeed. Well I got me a packet of seeds and to grow they'll also need love and water and sunshine and soil. But most importantly love. There are even more gardening team V. I. P. S. In addition to water soil. Sun and love. And they are pollinators. And I've called on my very good friend and founder of the Detroit Butterfly nursery to tell us a bit more about pollinators and why they're so important in the garden. MomCat Kelly thank you for being here today. Thank you so much for having me. Now could you please tell us what is a pollinator? So I like to describe pollinators as flower visitors. So basically they go from one flower to another eating nectar and distributing pollen all around the garden. They can be anyone from bees to butterflies, even birds, beetles and ants, ants can be pollinators. Yes they can. Well mom Cat kelly, why are they so important to our gardens? Well we need pollinators first of all because they help our plants flower grow and thrive. We wouldn't have all those beautiful flowers or yummy veggies if it wasn't for them. There are also a super important part of the food chain, butterflies and moths. That is because their food for birds, bats and other animals. Well if they're so important to our gardens, well, how can I help attract pollinators to my garden? Well, first of all you'll need a sunny spot. Most insects can't generate heat from their bodies. They're cold blooded. So they use the sun to warm up. They need that warrant to be able to fly. And most of our pollinator friendly plants, they need sun as well to grow. So we want to make sure you have a nice sunny spot. It doesn't matter if you have a backyard, a patio or even apartment balcony, big or small, you can make a huge, so once you have that nice sunny spot you need some butterfly food or nectar sources that means blossoms or flowers and butterflies in particular. They love all different types of colors. They love orange and red, yellow, pink and purple blossoms. So once you have those nectar sources, you'll also want to put in a food source for them or host plant. I call that caterpillar food 90% of insects, actually our host plant specialist. So think of them as like picky eaters. They only eat one specific type of plant and as far as the monarch butterfly, they only have one specific, very super important plant that they eat. It's called milkweed. There about 11 species that are native to our area in michigan are favorites are swamp milkweed, common milkweed um showing milkweed, they have purple and pink blooms. They're so beautiful. There is such a great important source of food for our monarch caterpillars. Thanks for giving us the buzz on pollinators. Mom cat kelly. I hope you have an amazing season at the Detroit butterfly nursery. And thank you for visiting grow town today. Let's celebrate another one of our very favorite garden pollinators from our album Motown is grow town. Here's honey bee. Yeah. Oh, honey sweetness from a flowering tree. Mm hmm. Hello? Oh, honey bee on the panel of a flowering tree flying high in the sky. I just love the work you do. Oh, honey bee, a flowering tree. Oh, would it be Gro-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, Gro-Town for free coloring pages, videos, music and more visit gro dash town dot com.

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, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 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.      

In this episode, we’re getting our hands dirty with SOIL! Join Miss Danielle as we get the bottom of dirt and why it’s the superstar of the garden. Meet worm farmer Tim for the wiggly scoop on how worms can be your garden’s MVPs!   Music. Garden. Community. Gro-Town!   For music, videos, free coloring sheets and more, visit www.gro-town.com   #motownisgrotown #gardening #worms #redwigglers  

We’re planting the seeds of fun with the only gardening podcast that’s just for kids! Welcome to Gro-Town where we celebrate the world outside our windows! Join Miss Danielle for growing tips, music, special guests, and a bounty of laughs along the way. Music. Garden. Community. Gro-Town! Continue the fun at Gro-Town SUBSCRIBE, like and follow!