Episode 2410

- [Voiceover] On this episode, Julie Berbiglia visits an organic farm that produces healthy vegetables while also offering job skills training and employment to some special people. And Marty DeHart tours a small residential lot with huge curb appeal! This and more, so stay tuned! First, new energy at a historic campus.

- I'm in northwestern Davidson County at the site of Old School Farm. Now, this 1936 era building has been repurposed and beautifully renovated by MillarRich. And most importantly, this urban farm and cafe is also a job training program for adults with intellectual disabilities. Well, Rowan and Susan, you have such a really interesting plan here for the Old School Farm. Now, how did it all come about? It doesn't seem to be your usual urban farm setup.

- No, it's quite different. We actually started MillarRich back in 2008 and we are a provider agency and we place adults that have intellectual disabilities into loving family homes. So, after several years of doing that, we kind of got our heads together and we said, "Hey, why don't we do something more "on the supported employment side?" So we decided that we wanted to start a farm. Now, one of the primary missions of the farm is to provide employment for adults that have intellectual disabilities, as well as to provide educational opportunities for the greater natural community.

- Wow, and so what kind of things are your employees learning now here?

- Well, basically, every aspect of gardening, of farming. You know, we broke ground in January of 2013, and it was actually one of the coldest days of, I think, in the year, maybe in many years, actually. So, you know, we started a lot of the infrastructure. That was a time we put a lot down in place, fencing, and section off the garden areas, makin' buildings.

- [Julie] So you really are a year-round organization here. I see you have the greenhouses for the seed-starting. I know your CSA is full this year, so I can't quite get into that. I do see you out at the farmers markets. Now, there's some local restaurants using your food as well?

- [Rowan] Yes, yes.

- [Julie] Well, it's a beautiful day and I see that we have one of your great crops right here, the okra.

- [Rachel] Yeah, okra's a treat to grow! It's also spiny! This stuff is actually pretty young. It's not gonna hurt you, but this will actually turn into a really cool jungle of okra here in a month or so. And you have to wear gloves and long sleeves when you're harvesting it, just 'cause it's got these funny little spines that'll sting you. But, the flowers are beautiful, as you can see, and the fruit is great, if you're a Southerner like me. Yeah, we really like the okra patch until about August.

- [Julie] Absolutely! Well, now, you have one of, maybe, our least favorite crops here as well. Certainly a problem we all deal with in urban gardening lands and farm lands, which is, well, you know, some weeds. So what is this right back here? I see a lot of this in my yard.

- [Rachel] Yeah, so this is pigweed. If you have it in your yard, then you've probably been pricked by it as well. And it is a really obnoxious weed because it's so spiny. It's actually, though, an indicator of soil health. Whenever I go through, I try and just pull the entire weed out and I've gotten kinda good at figuring out where the spines aren't, but better to use gloves. It's kinda interesting 'cause we've had this farm for two years, and last year, we hardly saw any of this pigweed, and since we've brought in a lot more manure and compost, this year, you can just tell the soil health is a lot better based on soil tests, but also based on, we see a lot of this pigweed!

- [Julie] Well, tomato time is certainly here. I see some beautiful tomatoes and you've got basil growing just right next to your tomatoes.

- [Rachel] So, we try and plant things together that might have some sort of properties that help each other. Basil, as everyone knows, has a really strong, aromatic smell, and some research shows that certain tomato pests really don't like that basil smell. It's not something that's completely scientifically proven, but we decided that it definitely wouldn't hurt to grow some tomatoes and basils here together and see what happens. And so far, they seem to be gettin' on pretty well.

- [Julie] All right, well, and at the very least, snacking on a little basil and a little tomato at the same time, not so bad.

- Nothing wrong with that.

- So, what kind of tomatoes do you have? I seem to see several varieties out here.

- Yeah, so these are the stars of the show right now. These are our Cherokee Purple and they're our first big slice tomato to do much this year. But we've got a lot of green tomatoes on our other plants down here. We have, these are all heirloom varieties, so they've been passed down for many generations. So this is a Striped German, we've got Brandywine down that way, and then we have Amish Paste, which is a good, solid, sauce-making tomato. And then on the other side, we have our cherry varieties, which are Sun Gold and something called Matt's Wild Cherry. And so they've been comin' in for a few weeks now and they're really popular at farmers markets with our CSA customers. They're basically like candy.

- [Julie] These are beautiful golden little wonders, and are these pattypans?

- [Rachel] Yes, they are pattypan squash! And they are my favorite summer squash. We also grow a variety called Zephyr, which is like a long, yellow squash, what most people think of. The pattypans, they are a little bit denser, and I think just that texture is really popular with a lot of our CSA people, rather than the wateriness that sometimes, you can get with summer squash. But they've been doing really well this year.

- [Julie] Out here, where there are a lot of access to the river, you know, in this Bell Bends area, we have a lot of different streams running through, well, really, all of Nashville. And so, it's so important that you're not using all those synthetic chemicals and instead, you're rotating crops, you're protecting the environment, and growing really healthy stuff. Well, I'm starting to see more and more CSAs that have flowers in their offerings.

- Mm hmm, it really brightens people's days! You know, you don't think about it, like, to go purchase flowers for yourself, but when you pick up your CSA basket or bag, and there's a little bouquet of flowers there for the taking, people just love it, so that's why we do it. Zinnias are our favorite. They do so well in the South. They're a little bit behind us, but these right here are Celosia flowers, and they are a lot of fun. They have just this really interesting texture and a variety of colors that you can get in one little seed pack. Sunflowers are just always a favorite, and nice thing about these flowers is they're really easy to grow. They generally don't need a ton of fertilizer or anything. You just put the seeds in the ground and they'll come up.

- [Julie] Well, that's great tip for all of us that want cut flowers in the house. And I guess the advantage is, not only do you have even more beauty in the garden, but you also have something to draw some more pollinators. Well, and I'm also seeing on the vine getting ready, you have some melons of different types. What's coming up for the fall?

- [Rachel] We've got cantaloupe and watermelon, should be harvested pretty soon. We'll get butternut squash, sweet potatoes, a lot of those nice fall storage crops. We're excited about that.

- [Julie] Wow, well, I'm excited to see 'em in the CSAs and out in the market. So, thank you, Rachel, for the tour.

- [Rachel] Cool, thank you.

- Well, besides the land here, I know that you have also made use of another really wonderful asset, the old building itself.

- Yes, we purchased the building back in 2012 and it was listed, we didn't know it at the time, but it was listed as one of the top nine historic buildings to save in Nashville. So, we spent the greater part of a year renovating the entire school, and we were able to save the front part of the floors and everything that were original back to 1936. And then we recently received the Historic Commission Award for our work on restoring the building. So, one of the other things that we're going to be able to do here in the near future is as soon as the cafe opens up, we're going to be able to use the local produce that we're growing here on the farm and supply the cafe with some of the local produce. And then we'll also be using that as a job training site for some more adults that have intellectual disabilities. 'Cause one of the biggest challenges, I believe, is that they don't come with a lot of job experience, so when you're trying to find jobs for people out in the community, they need to start somewhere. So this is a great training ground for some of our adults that have intellectual disabilities.

- [Julie] Well, and then the people that wanna come out and enjoy the cafe can also enjoy this beautiful farm area.

- [Susan] That's right! That's right, they can.

- High-density housing like you're looking at right now is becoming increasingly common way for people to live in places like Nashville, other cities. It's a really smart way for people to have a really nice house, little yard without having the responsibility of a big lot, elaborate landscape and all that that entails. And you can see there's room for a little lawn, a couple of nice trees, people put shrubs around their foundation, dress it up a little bit. That's what's very common, but occasionally, somebody really does something creative and special with these little lots like this. And today, we're gonna go on a terrific garden tour of just such a place right now. Today, we're at the home of Tony and Jeannie Herrera here in Green Hills in Nashville. And Tony, thanks so much for inviting us here!

- Excited that you're here, Marty.

- Tell me, how long have you been putting this wonderful garden together?

- We actually started on this in 2000, and probably about 60, 70% of it was completed then. And it's just been kind of a add a few things here and there for the last several years.

- That's the way gardens go. You're never quite finished, even when you think you are. Well, I can't wait for you to show us all the special things you've got. So why don't we just take a good gander at everything you've got going. I love the way you've got different textures and colors, shades of green all working together in this garden. It's really extraordinary!

- [Tony] Well, we like a lot of different plants and trees and shrubs. I'm real fond of the ornamentals and artsy pieces, and I like some of the Southern classics, Jeannie does too; the azaleas and rhododendrons.

- [Marty] Tony, one of the things I really love is that you've got these huge crepe myrtles in a relatively confined space, and they're completely working. They're not overcrowded, they're not too big, they look beautiful!

- [Tony] You know, Marty, they get loved on, and they get manicured at the right time. And they're just a beautiful part of our whole landscaping scene here.

- [Marty] They are, and I gotta say, "loved" is the right word. You have not done "crepe murder" on these, I can tell by the way they've been pruned. They've been correctly pruned so that you get the full advantage of this gorgeous bark, which is just one of the great features of crepe myrtles.

- They certainly complement all of our landscaping.

- They do! Somehow, you've managed to give yourselves a very private front entrance with this minuscule front yard, and it's by the clever planting of these large specimen evergreens. It's really lovely!

- They kinda maybe got a little bigger than I thought that they would, but they obviously love where they are and we love looking at 'em. I like the, kinda, northwest part.

- [Marty] Yeah, this has a kind of a Portland, Oregon look to it, this Blue Atlas Cedar you have.

- [Tony] It does, and my daddy was from Colorado, or is from Colorado--

- [Marty] So blue spruce.

- [Tony] I kinda, makes me think of that.

- And one of the things that first struck me when I walked in here, was how you've solved the problem of having grass, if you will, in the shade, which is just about impossible for most people. And the way you've accomplished that is by having not true grass, but Mondo.

- It was a real struggle. We tried hard to get the grass to grow, and it's obvious there's a lot of shade here, and it was some excessive moisture.

- [Marty] Yeah, I can see it slopes down, yeah.

- [Tony] We put the grass in two years ago, this is the second season, and we really like it.

- [Marty] It has a flowing because it's longer. You don't mow it. It has that kind of "river of soft grass" look to it, rather than the cut velvet look of a normal lawn. It's really pleasing texture with so many other things that you've got around. And of course, it leads us to this glorious Japanese maple, which you've got here, which is beautifully pruned so you can really see the structure of the tree. And you say it's beautifully lit at night?

- [Tony] It looks wonderful at night. And an interesting thing about this tree, this was in the backyard. And so, we thought, "Well, use it as a feature." It's just adapted itself real well.

- And another thing I really noticed that I love, that you don't see many people do, is you used a hearty fern in a pot rather than a Boston or Macho or Kimberly Queen up on your front porch, which is you used an Autumn fern.

- [Tony] Yeah, well, thanks for noticing that. They have really had a great season growing this year.

- [Marty] Yeah, they have. It's beautiful. We're comin' in to the backyard now. Tony, this is just great. One thing I've noticed is that, you know, landscape designers, and I am one, will tell people, "Oh, don't just plant one of anything. "You gotta have masses to make an impact." But one thing your beautiful garden shows is that when you've got a small space and you're an inherent collector like you are, one of something makes a ton of sense! Everything stands out. And I know that you are a fan of conifers, I can tell.

- [Tony] Well, that's certainly one of my favorites. I like the different shapes, I like the different bends, I like the different leaf structures, the different colors.

- [Marty] You're growing Indica azaleas here. That's a Florida plant, or South Alabama, or whatever, and I guess it's 'cause with the sheltered location or something?

- [Tony] Well, they do real good. We kinda keep 'em trimmed just a little bit because they do so good.

- [Marty] They get huge if you let 'em go.

- [Tony] Well, I've seen them in Florida, and I know what you're talking about. I've seen 'em six feet tall, seven feet tall.

- [Marty] Right.

- [Tony] But those have a real, real pretty violet kind of an orchid bloom.

- Yeah huge, huge flower. I think that one's formosa, I think that's the name of that big go ahead--

- You keep teachin' me.

- [Marty] I guess you could call this your "red corner" back here.

- [Tony] It's red!

- [Marty] That hibiscus is awesome!

- [Tony] Thank you.

- [Marty] Those flowers have to be, what, nine inches across, maybe?

- [Tony] They're really big, and now that we've had a little bit of rain there, they're off and firin' again.

- Ah, it's gorgeous. I'm not sure exactly what variety that is, but I suspect that it's Lord Baltimore. That's what it looks a lot like. And really hardy! Comes back reliably every year, blooms like clockwork.

- [Tony] It does! You know, 'bout the time you think, "Well, I don't know!" All of a sudden, here it comes!

- They're late to sprout.

- Yeah, and once it gets goin', you know. It'll keep bloomin' all the way through September.

- That's awesome. What a display!

- [Tony] Yeah, it's pretty.

- It is. And I have to say, your love of conifers obviously extends to container plants. Look at this thing. This is fabulous!

- [Tony] That's a good one that lets me have a little bit of fun, bendin' it and tyin' it up, and curlin' it.

- [Marty] Weeping Atlas is really pretty.

- [Tony] Pretty blue color.

- [Marty] And I love the little calibrachoa under it. That's really pretty. Hey, I hear falling water!

- [Tony] Yeah, we got a nice little water feature back here to look at.

- Cool! Oh, but on the way, look at these incredible pom poms! My gosh! You do this?

- Yeah, yeah! I've had a part of the shaping. Now, naturally, when it went in, it had some shape to it, but I've been able to, with a little bit of help, keep it lookin' like you're seein' it now.

- Juniper will really take a lot of shaping and still thrive. It's really remarkable. And I gotta say, the most startling thing of all, in this backyard, is this palm tree.

- Isn't that somethin'?

- Yes! That palm tree, a hearty windmill palm. Once again, we're in Nashville. You don't see palms!

- [Tony] Well, that's been around 10 years.

- [Marty] Wow!

- [Tony] Jeannie and I knew that it wouldn't have a chance of survival, but it was fun, it was obviously much, much smaller. But it's hung in there.

- [Marty] That is beautiful.

- [Tony] This has been a unbelievable year for it. Obviously, been so hot.

- [Marty] Yeah, that's what they like.

- Yeah, and it's just really, really, really grown this year.

- Well, it's gotta be, what, 12-feet tall? I mean, it's huge! It's spectacular! And what a nice counterpoint to this people pond!

- Yeah, yeah! It's a nice spa.

- Yeah, that's delightful!

- [Tony] It's comfortable. You know, we didn't want a great big pool. We wanted something that was big enough for Jeannie and I to float around in. And my buddy, Lee Seelig, at Waterscapes helped us with it--

- [Marty] Oh, that's really beautiful.

- [Tony] And put it in for us.

- It's just right for your yard. You don't really have room for a huge pool. You'd sacrifice everything if you put in a regular pool. These azaleas look great back here.

- [Tony] Thanks, Marty! They were kinda like the Japanese maple that we moved from the back to the front. These were up front, or out front. They didn't like where they were, they weren't happy, and so we moved 'em and got 'em back here in the shade, and they love it. A great Southern classic plant.

- [Marty] Well, and it just shows, you don't have to be afraid to move stuff around. If it's not happy where it is, try it some place else.

- [Tony] Well, we've had some good success doing things like that. We don't ever try to get rid of anything.

- [Marty] Yeah, me neither.

- [Tony] And you can see we put it everywhere, so...

- [Marty] Yeah!

- [Tony] All the hostas here, they came from out front. We moved them, you know, to the back back here.

- [Marty] Oh, it's lovely. It's very peaceful. This is truly a lovely, lovely yard. I wanna thank you so much--

- [Tony] Thanks, Marty!

- [Marty] For givin' us such a great tour!

- [Tony] Thanks for helpin' me learn a little bit more 'bout what I've got back here.

- [Marty] My pleasure!

- [Jeff] Today, we're at a Bells Bend neighborhood farm that grows hops. Humulus lupulus has been grown for centuries for its medicinal qualities and for making beer. Here to help us learn more about hops is Linus Hall, a local brewer.

- Hey, thanks Jeff. Yeah, this batch of hops that we're growin' out here is destined for beer that we make once a year called "Bells Bend Preservation Ale." We take the hops, we make up a big batch of, hopefully, about 500 cases of beer this year.

- [Jeff] 500 cases?

- [Linus] Yeah, and then we donate part of the proceeds back to the CSA for the farm.

- [Jeff] Oh, that's great!

- [Linus] This particular patch, this is the third year that they've been growin' it. We started with a row along the fence line there, and then transplanted that into this bigger field here. Put up these trellises, which are about 18-feet tall.

- [Jeff] Oh my gosh!

- [Linus] And we're gonna have about 150 vines to harvest in about two weeks here.

- [Jeff] So, you say you started with a smaller patch and then you propagated the plants? How do we propagate?

- [Linus] Well, hops grow from a root stock. It's called a "rhizome."

- [Jeff] So that's not grown from seeds?

- [Linus] No, you would cut the root stock up into different segments, and transplant that in order to grow more and more of the same varieties. Get a couple shootin' off here and here.

- [Jeff] You see the little bud right there? That is an advantageous bud that will make a new hops plant. All you need is just a small piece of the root, like that right there. As long as it has one of these little buds on it, that'll make a new plant. Linus, run us through the cultural techniques starting this spring for growing a hops crop.

- [Linus] Oh yeah, once you've planted your rhizomes in the early spring, not much will happen for a little while. You'll go ahead and get the soil prepared. What we did here is we put cardboard over all the rows, cut a hole out where we knew the rhizomes were gonna pop up, and then just put a shovelful of manure over that. But in early March, April, you'll start seein' little shoots start poppin' up. And what you'll do is, you'll run a jute twine down to the ground, anchor it there, and try to get three or four of the strongest shoots poppin' up to twine around that. And you can actually cut the ones that are the weaker ones and a lot of people will sautee them and butter it. Tastes a lot like asparagus.

- You can eat 'em!

- Yeah, you can eat 'em too.

- I'll be durned! I didn't know that.

- And then, you know, throughout the season, they'll grow pretty aggressively. Sometimes, in the early summer, probably as much as a foot a day.

- A foot a day?

- [Linus] A foot a day, yeah. Me, growin' up in Mississippi, they remind me of kudzu a lot. The leaves are similar and they're very aggressive vines. And then what you'll do is you wanna cut back the first three feet or so of vegetation off the ground. That'll keep the mildew from comin' up off the ground and into the plant.

- So you have more air flow?

- Right, right. And then in July, August, you'll start to see the little immature hop cones start poppin' out.

- [Jeff] And this is one that's not ripe?

- [Linus] So, this is one that's not ready to be picked at all. You can see, when you break it open, there's really nothin' in the interior of it. A ripe cone, like some of these we see here... These are almost ready to be picked. And you'll see that nice, bright yellow wood-blend resin there. Once you pick these and throw them into a batch of beer and boil it, those resins will be boiled into the beer and you'll get that nice, kind of citrus-y bitterness into the beer. Yeah, these are awesome!

- Yeah, yeah. So, if somebody was just a home brewer, it would be a good idea for them to have a hops plant or two in their backyard.

- Yeah, it's so easy to do. I mean, you take the root stock, grow it, twine it up over somethin' so that it'll get up in the air, and then, in about August, you're ready to be picked. What we'll be doin' with these is probably in about two weeks, we'll have a whole crew of volunteers come out and help us cut down the vines, pick all the hops off. Then we're gonna rush them back to the brewery, put them in a batch of beer, and it should be ready in about, maybe late September. We're kinda end user of these hops, but it's really fun for me to come out here and kind of, like you said, dig your hands in the dirt and be reminded of what you drink came from the soil. We're gonna rush these back to the brewery and use them right away, but if you don't wanna use 'em right away, you need to dry them out. Traditionally, they'd put these in what's called "a hop house," or an "oast house" in England, and run hot air through them to dry them out. And then they'll be preserved for the rest of the year 'cause you only pick 'em once a year.

- Right, they all come ripe at once.

- Right.

- And then when these are harvested and you take the vines down, then you just lay the bed to rest?

- Yeah, the roots, they'll go dormant and pop back up again in the spring.

- Yeah, so it's pretty easy to grow!

- Yeah, and if you're a typical home brewer, one or two vines of these size would be enough for a 10-gallon batch of beer.

- Oh, great! Well, hops is an ancient crop. Been used for many years to help people as an herbal remedy and it's great for making beer!

- [Linus] Sure is.

- [Voiceover] So, what's Troy Martin been doing in his garden lately? Hybridizing daylilies. We'll learn what plant traits he deems desirable to include in a possible new introduction. And Marty DeHart shares growing tips for the tomato patch. This one is in containers. That's next time on "Volunteer Gardener."